At 10:34 AM 7 October 2002 -0500, Brian J White wrote: >Jim..sorry bud, but I've gotta say you're wrong here. >With all due respect to your Libertarian ideals, you're incorrectly >reducing the problem to a simple set of circumstances.....the guy >wanted to deal in English units. > >HE COULD HAVE DELT IN ENGLISH UNITS had he owned a dual standard >APPROVED scale. All scales for trade have to be approved by a govenrment >agency. Our gas pumps are approved, scales are inspected. All to >provide some sort of accuracy for our trade based economy.
Yea, I'm making a big deal out of what, to most of you, is probably a technicality. However, it WAS the issue to this guy. It WAS the reason he refused to give in. Shouldn't we at least try to understand what motivated the guy? And it certainly was NOTHING related to fraud -- he wasn't trying to rip anyone off! The guy probably had a perfectly good pound scale, which had probably been certified many times in the past by the government. Then, one day the inspector comes in and says "Hey, you can't use that -- it has to have kilograms on it!" So, he is now forced (if he wants to obey the law) to go out, buy a new scale, which he nor his customers really care about, and have it certified, and throw the old scale away. And he's thinking, "I am NOT trying to rip anyone off, my customers are NOT asking for this, why the !@#$% do I have buy a new scale? Why do I have to pay because someone I don't even know likes kilograms?" I am not expecting that you agree with him (or me), but at least try to see that the point has NOTHING to do with fraud or misleading the consumer. It has to do with the government coming in, changing long established laws in a fashion that is nothing but detrimental to this guy. >Otherwise, if everyone had the freedom to use whatever scales they >wanted, and there was no government oversight, abuses would soon >follow...and even now I'm sure they do occur. Again, he wasn't complaining about the oversight. No doubt the government had certified his pound scale many times. It has nothing to do with fraud or abuse. >This guy refused to use a government approved scale system. Plain >and simple. The issue of English vs metric was only secondary. He refused to use a NEW approved scale system. He had a perfectly good one that the government had approved in the past. >Simple as that. Quit trying to read more into it than has already >been read into it...wayyyy too much I say. I know what you are saying here. However, I would suggest that one should "know thy enemy." The anti-metricationists in the USA are going to parade this guy through the streets of New York if we ever get mandatory metric laws, and there are going to be (anti)-Metric Martyrs in the USA. If this is viewed as "oh, it's just because he wouldn't buy a dual-label scale," then you have no idea what motivates people such as this, and will not be able to as effectively counter them. And I think such people will be MUCH more effective in the USA, due to our national temperament. Jim Elwell, CAMS Electrical Engineer Industrial manufacturing manager Salt Lake City, Utah, USA www.qsicorp.com
