I distrust market forces. They do not necessarily boost the good things. They made inferior standards like VHS Video and the MSDOS PC the global ones. In the past I would never have preferred the IBM PC to the Amiga. Last year I caved in to the PC. With Windows 95 and 98 the Amiga was overtaken at last. It had multitasking and PnP years before the PC. It is just as well that we did not allow market forces to establish global TV standards. Then we might have NTSC here instead of PAL. I have heard things about NTSC. And I know about the joke: Never Twice the Same Color. Anti-metric industries have used them to contaminate the world with ifp. The TABD wants market forces to determine which measuring units appear on labels. Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "Duncan Bath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 5:11 PM Subject: [USMA:13536] Re: No, *you* go first... > Yes, those who would rely on "market forces" doing the job forget that > *the market* decides what is to be offered and at what price. It > constitutes a profoundly blunt instrument when it comes to standardization; > in fact, often just the reverse. > Duncan > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: June 6, 2001 23:01 > Subject: [USMA:13526] No, *you* go first... > > > >The voluntary approach to metrication has one fatal flaw: it leaves it up > to > >everyday people, who, honestly, have more important things to obsess on. > >Bitch and moan though some may, most neither care about metrication *nor* > >saving Flintstone Units. They simply don't care very much about the > subject, > >at least not to the degree we do. > > > >On the other hand, they don't normally feel a need to *prevent* > metrication, > >either...in fact, the prevailing attitude among persons my age (35�,±) and > >under is, "We probably *should* go metric, but *I'm* not gonna volunteer". > So > >everyone waits for the other guy (or girl) to go first, and no-one does. > > > >Therefore, I definitely support a federally mandated approach, but not > along > >the lines of, "okay, everyone, we're all metric in ten minutes." The > "Hondo" > >approach is worse than the voluntary one, in that we'll try to change > >everything at once, screw it up badly, then revert...anytime anyone > suggests > >trying again, opponents will point to the previous fiasco and declare, > "See!" > > To do it right, do it painlessly, and do it permanently, we need: > > > >* To devise a firm timetable AND STICK TO IT (pardon my caps) > >* To show that it really will be good for business and industry, and even > the > >general public > >* To dispel this downright idiotic notion that metric is "un-American" or > >"counter-Canadian" (We didn't invent FFU, either!) > >* To not waste time on pointless, trivial "improvements" like renaming > >ten-gallon hats, foot-long hot-dogs and Three Mile Island, PA, and > > >silly acts of "dekaphillia" (Does *anyone* sell a "dek-ova" of eggs in > place > >of 12? Anywhere?) > >* Finally, to reassure people that their familiar IFP won't disappear > >overnight and leave them in a lurch; it's a transition, not a > blitzkrieg; > >grandpa won't have to trash his '74 Buick just because there are no km/h on > >the speedometer > > > >Remember, we're not a band of militant nerds hell-bent on dumping the apple > >cart: > >We're folks who love our respective countries and their people, and want to > >bring about a much-needed â�,��?� and long overdue â�,��?� improvement to them. > > > >Randi (The Long-winded) > > > > >
