kilopascal said: >I really wish all of the TABD companies would go bankrupt.
The TABD publication at http://www.tabd.org/recommendations/matrix02.pdf seems to indicate that many of the companies involved with TABD are in fact European. I thought you were in favor of a strong Europe? Marcus wrote: >In any case, perhaps the ONLY *EFFECTIVE* safeguard we have is to simply boycott TABD members' products in the marketplace. Calling for a boycott would accomplish nothing, even if it were possible. The companies honestly couldn't care less if two dozen people boycotted their products for being part of an organization that helps them sell their products. To bring pressure to bear on corporations, you need more than just a few people not buying their products. You would need to gain a heck of a lot more influence than that. There are two things you can do: 1) get a *lot* more people, or 2) get the attention of some very important people. Either of these requires us to be realistic and appeal to the mainstream. The average consumer is not going to join some quixotic boycott of half the companies they buy from just because some other organization isn't supporting metrication the way you want them to. Marcus, I think Bill Potts' earlier statement applies to the tone of some of your proposals, "Beware of proposals that will make us look like a bunch of crazy zealots." Let me give an example of what I am talking about. The environmental movement has a lot of support. People understand why they have an interest in being environmentally conscious. Recently, some eco-activists began targeting SUV drivers because the cars burn too much fuel. The LA Times ran an article a few weeks ago that said this is a mistake: [begin quote] The war against SUVs is probably a mistake on the part of the environmental movement. To begin with, many of those who drive SUVs, even in a city, see themselves as outdoors people. And outdoors people are environmentalists. So by vilifying this group, the SUV-haters alienate their own constituents. You may not like driving behind the guy in the Land Cruiser, but he's probably voting for open space in his community, supporting wilderness bills and contributing to the Nature Conservancy. With a little prodding, he might support even more radical environmental measures. But slap an insulting climate-change sticker on his bumper and you've radicalized him. Now he starts to hate "environmentalists" and begins to define himself as something else. [end quote] You can't get people on your side by making enemies of everyone else. You have to try to appeal to a broad constituency and act reasonable. I think many in the women's movement made the same mistake that these anti-SUV people are making. In the end, they marginalize their own movement. A company doesn't care about a metric boycott because they know that it won't get enough support to make one bit of difference. On the other hand, they would pay attention to a customer who expresses a preference in a normal and reasonable way, because there could well be many customers with that preference. I would rather have one person who prefers metric usage but is a part of mainstream society than ten who are outraged and stridently protest non-metric usage. Carl Sorenson P.S. Don't anyone freak out about the environmental or women's movements, as I suspect someone probably is, knowing this list. They're examples.
