I've ranted on this forum about how the free market will best figure out how to convert the USA to metric (admitting that it won't happen quickly). I'm happy to report that Smith's work largely validates what us Libertarians and capitalists have been saying: let the market handle the changeover to maximize the efficiency and minimize the cost of metrication.
One tidbit from the December issue of Reason magazine (www.reason.com), in the preface to an interview with Smith:
"Smith's ideological odyssey has been no less wide-ranging. He started out as an avowed socialist who believed that the good society was one in which a few wise men made most social, economic and political decisions. Over the years, he gravitated toward a libertarian position that holds that individuals should be as free as possible to make their own tradeoffs. 'Whether we're talking about politics or economics, or even social interaction,' says Smith, 'the best systems maximize the freedom of the individual, subject to the constraint of others in the system.' "
Interestingly, Smith did some of his economic experimentation in the hard-science field of deep space exploration craft. Quoting Smith from the body of the interview:
"Another area for experimental economics has to do with NASA. We worked on the Cassini mission [which in 1997 sent 800 pounds of scientific instruments on a small spacecraft to Saturn to conduct experiments]. We used a trading system to allocate the resources that each separate experiment got to use on board.
Each experiment used three basic elements: energy, mass and volume. The idea was to come up with the most efficient use of these three resources. We allocated a set amount for each resource. Participants were given tokens that were essentially money that they could trade among themselves. When the bidding started, the price of mass started out very high relative to volume and energy. Then people started to conserve it, and, by the end, it collapsed. The price of mass collapsed!
That was the first space mission that came in without a big cost overrun."
This issue of Reason is not yet online, but in a few weeks you can read the entire interview at www.reason.com. Reason is also available at most larger bookstores (Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, etc.).
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com
