I know in my environment people who still convert everything back, and I always say that they should stop doing it, as the guilder is gone forever. The only thing I ever converted back, was my first salary slip in euros, as at that moment I had to get to grips with the low numerical value. What had been about 2400 was now about 1200. Afterwards no back-converting as far as I was concerned. We will have to go on and this resistance to the euro will surely fade away in the future. If in 1820 Dutch people had been polled about the metric system, they would have rejected it by a large majority. Younger Dutch people are more in favour of the euro. However, such attitudes of young people are never to be taken for granted, as in Britain many young people read sewer papers like the xenophobic, anti-European and anti-metric Sun. Many young Britons reject the metric system. I reported before how in a coach approaching Breda in The Netherlands from Belgium a few years ago, some teen Briton thought that a sign stating "Breda 40" meant to say 40 miles!
There was a questionnaire among 5000 people and many of them wanted the guilder back and converted everything back. This questionnaire made an anti-European commentator, a former surgeon, who had earlier supported the Metric Martyrs against the 'Brussels Bureaucratic Bully' to rail against the euro. I wonder, if this surgeon supports the Metric Martyrs, and even had the cheek to call ifp units international ones (I sent a vigorous rebuttal to the paper that published this rant), he should campaign for the re-introduction of apothecaries weights and calling these 'international' units as well. By *co-incidence* the apothecaries weights that were abolished in the Netherlands in 1870 were exactly like those used in Britain and the USA until recently; the pound was the same (373 g) and the subdivisions were the same! At least, Maporama has seen the light and has made 'international' units of measurement optional and no longer the default ones. I checked them just a few days ago, and the defaults are metric. When they were still in the dark, they had defended their wrong defaults by using the argument that they wanted to offer an international service, ergo, this means that ifp units are international ones! Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2002-09-05 21:50 Subject: [USMA:22085] RE: Spanish dollar > 2002-09-04 > > How much of a backlash is there and how does this backlash manifest itself? > Let's face facts, one has to use euros to buy and sell, there is no choice. > > Who cares if some people convert back to guilders, as long as the prices are > posted in Euros only and the headache is on them who make the back > conversions. The same logic must hold true with conversion to SI. Some > will try and back convert, but let them. It is an inconvenience to them who > do it, not to those that adjust. > > The costs and the raising of prices is the same scare tactics used by metric > opponents to scare the public into becoming opponents too. What proof is > there of prices being raised? Or that prices are raised due to the Euro and > not other economic factors? How much of a price rise is there? It is very > infantile to get upset if a price is rounded up to the nearest cent instead > of rounding down. Also, how many items have dropped in price? The > appreciation of the Euro on world markets actually brings prices down. Is > this happening, and how is it being reported? > > All in all, it will take a few years before the memory of the old currency > begins to fade. Just as it will take a few years for the memory of old > units to fade. > > John > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, 2002-09-04 02:35 > Subject: [USMA:22078] RE: Spanish dollar > > > > Too bad that I have to report that there is a backlash against the euro > here > > as it is blamed for price rises and most people continue to convert > > everything back to guilders. I hope that this stupid backlash will ebb off > > soon. > > And there is the folly of an Italian proposal to introduce a 1 euro > > banknote. Two reasons are given, and I reject both. They claim that a bank > > note will give a better insight of inflation to the people. I do not know > > how. The second reason is, that as the US ha a one dollar note, we should > > have a 1 euro note. Let's go develop that notion a bit further: as the USA > > uses ifp, the EU should also use it. > > > > BTW: that stuff about a price of .25 cents was hilarious! > > > > Han > > > > > >
