At 03:02 PM 5 April 2002 +1000, Pat Naughtin wrote: >My preliminary thoughts are that there are three main groups of metric >opponents � they are: > >1 Conservatives >2 Control freaks >3 Traders
As to "Conservatives," I agree, as long as you are not using it in a political sense. A person's political orientation has little relationship to how adverse that person is to change. Being neither liberal nor conservative, I see both groups as wanting change in some areas, and opposing change in others. Which, of course, also describes Libertarians. >3 Traders >These are the folk to attack, and to attack with vigor. Traders deliberately >(and regularly) use old measures to dupe their customers. I believe this is the converse of reality. For a long time in the US, traders (i.e., manufacturers) have been required to use certain units of measure, and those are the units Americans are used to seeing and are comfortable with. Which means that, as we move to metric, the small minority of traders who try these games will use metric units in exactly the same way: to dupe their customers. Which makes a good argument *against* metrication in the USA. Jim Elwell Electrical Engineer Industrial manufacturing manager Salt Lake City, Utah, USA www.qsicorp.com
