Markus: Welcome back to to the list! You must have left before I joined (or around the same time), as I don't recall seeing postings from you in the past, although I've been here for a number of years. In respone to your email: I think we have seen some progress in the USA, although not as much as we would like. Some examples: (1) Far more consumer products are metric today than five years ago (see the USMA site for a list), although still only perhaps 2 to 3% of what is in a grocery store. And they are mostly dual-labeled rather than metric only (since that is what the law requires). (2) My industry (industrial electronics) has made major progress in metrication. Electrical components are largely metric now (the 0.1" grid is biting the dust) and mechanical drawings for things like LCD modules and connectors often have no colloquial units at all, even from US companies. Ten years ago we often had subcontractors complain about our metric drawings; that rarely happens any more. (3) The US military is largely metric by now, and its procurement from the private sector is largely done in metric. Regarding your suggestions:
(1) Where you suggest the various government operations metricate (e.g., driver�s licenses, within legislation, road signs, FAA, etc.) I would add: include anything the government procures. The US federal government (let alone adding state, county and city governments) is far and away the single largest purchaser of goods and services in the country. Merely metricating the federal government will be a MAJOR impetus to metricating the country as a whole. Sadly, we have not seen too much progress in this area, and some backtracking in state DOTs in recent years. (2) Where you suggest impositions on the private sector (e.g., �undefining� colloquial units, control of marketing of non-metric instruments), I have to part company. These things are unnecessary (see above), inherently create more government bureaucracy and more non-productive burden on the private sector, and are, in my opinion, morally corrupt. Although I am an ardent supporter of the metric system, I believe that what your government did to your Metric Martyr is a travesty. A man wants to make a living selling fruit in a non-coercive and non-fraudulent manner, something he has done for years, and your government destroys his life. I also believe that when substantive mandatory metric legislation is tried in the USA, this guy is going to be paraded down main street to show how �metric destroys freedom.� Here is what I see as likely in the USA in the next few years: some laws will probably be imposed on the private sector. The private sector will continue to lead the governmental sector in metrication, more of its own accord than due to any laws. Laws such as �undefining� colloquial measures (or redefining them in round metric units) don�t stand a chance, and are an open invitation to fraud and economic disaster. Fraud, because units will have two definitions (notwithstanding that only one is �legal�), and economic disaster because you have the world�s largest economy, and trillions of dollars of manufacturing infrastructure, built upon the current definitions of the units. It is going to take some time for a lot of that infrastructure to be updated to metric units. So, I think the USA will continue to metricate, and I think we are nearing a critical mass, such that within another ten years we will be largely a metric country. Of course, vestiges of non-metric products and activities will probably be around for another 50 to 100 years. Jim Elwell, CAMS Electrical engineering manager QSI Corporation [EMAIL PROTECTED]
