I did not mean ifp but the American political system, legislation and 'freedom to measure', always giving in to the first whiff of resistance. I cannot support this type of democracy. Politicians who jump on the anti-metric bandwagon, as they did in Canada in the eighties, don't do that because they love democracy that much, they just do it to catch votes. It was the political system that allowed large scale cheating with weights and measures in the USA in the beginning of the 20th century; when a City Sealer in New York uncovered the whole sordid thing, at last measures were taken against it. States that legalized the 'commercial acre' promoted cheating and confusion, that is what I meant. They acted against the interests of the citizens and favoured powerful vested interests. USC cannot be blamed for it. If America was a bit less 'democratic' on this issue, there would be no 'commercial acre', just the statute one. We do not have 'commercial hectares', 'commercial meters, liters, kilograms' etc, not because that would be impossible under the metric system (just more difficult under metric than under ifp) but because we are just that bit less democratic than the USA is, have limited 'freedom to measure' and use the law against such things. I would never propose to jail or fine the Maporama people when they used ifp as their overall defaults, even when they sickened me. They must be convinced by other means, that is, by citizens who protest, as I did. But if some trader in The Netherlands or any other metric country starts to sell goods by the pound avoirdupois, the gallon or the yard, I want to see him exposed and fined, (not as severely as in the UK), not jailed. And I would boycott him. If that is 'undemocratic', that is just too bad.
Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Elwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, 2002-10-07 16:35 Subject: [USMA:22495] Re: Mandatory conversion? (was $1 coins) > At 05:10 PM 5 October 2002 +0200, Han Maenen wrote: > >The American way has definite flaws as it promotes cheating and endless confusion. I know that some states in the USA have a so-called 'commercial acre' which is substantially smaller than the statute one. ... > > Sleezy business practices are not due to nor unique to colloquial measurement. Nor can I agree that our colloquial system "promotes" them -- it just makes it a bit easier in some contexts to be sleezy. > > The SI system may make it more difficult to practice such deceptions, but by no means will it eliminate them (are there no measurement-based deceptions practiced in all of Europe?). > > And while such practices may be deplorable, they hardly constitute a major problem in the US economy. > > I think we need stronger arguments for metrication than this. > > Jim Elwell, CAMS > Electrical Engineer > Industrial manufacturing manager > Salt Lake City, Utah, USA > www.qsicorp.com > >
