Dear All,
Is there any truth to this story, that was sent to me by my sister.
'The story I've always been told is that when President Carter tried to
switch the US to the metric system, the aerospace companies stepped in and
told him a couple things:
'1) cost plus on government contracts is going to be a much bigger PLUS
'2) it'll hurt US manufacturing by making it easier for those foreigners to
sell their products here (without conversion to US measurements)'
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin CAMS
Geelong, Australia
The story I've heard is that Carter inherited the legislation that Gerald Ford signed, committing the USA to metric conversion. When he became President it fell upon him to appoint the US Metric Board. Ever the consensus-builder, he made a mistake on this one -- he appointed both pro- and anti-metric people. This is not how you get anything done. The resultant internal squabbling and cat fights lasted long enough for Ronald "I hate government" Reagan to get into power -- and he promptly defunded the Board: "Gummint isn't supposed to tell people what to do." The result -- well, look around. It's now a third rail issue: no political benefit in supporting it -- and, touch it, and you die, as all the whiners start in with "Waa, waa, waa, you are making us change, and we don't WANNA change."
Carleton
