On Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:37:53 +0100, Jess Holle <[email protected]> wrote:
While the US is often prone to stubbornly "go its own way", I don't actually see that as a big part of the equation here.
I don't comment on the "own way", since the important thing is whether a given way makes sense or not. So far USA went their own way for some things that made sense. Units don't in my opinion.
I think this is mostly about most folk in the US being unable to stomach the thought of changing to some "weird" new units that they're unfamiliar with. They live their lives thinking solely in terms of pounds, gallons, ounces, miles, feet, and inches. Kilograms, liters, kilometers, and meters are positively Martian to most people in the US. I'm not sure how well those who don't take a good sampling of science courses really get introduced to SI units, much less their compelling nature. Even among those who are, many don't see them in use enough to /think /in terms of them. [It helps when you're into things like cross-country skiing where measurements are primarily in SI units -- even in the US.]
Correct, but didn't the UK face with the same problem and survived? They also faced with a reform in their currency, as well as many Europeans faced with a complete change in the currency (whether a good idea or not is another matter).
Everyone wants more government than they're willing to pay for and no one puts enough priority on investments -- but rather just kicks the can down the road for the future. This is true for things ranging from the metric system to public infrastructure (sewer systems, bridges,...) to education and research.
USA have their own problems, but the whole Western world unfortunately is suffering from a huge loss of quality in politics. Still, other countries such as the cited UK managed to made the unit change in the past.
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