I'm glad someone raised the "trillion dollar" point.Yes - the idea is a farce.As someone "on the fence" from the UK (who is pro-choice but prefers imperial for most [*BUT* not all] things) I can only suggest and recommend against ideas that could do your cause harm. From discussions here I would put them in this order:1) The criticism of minutiae of capital letters when they should not be (he jumped 3M), lack of gaps (John is 1.2m tall) and colloquial use (The car could do 300 kph) will turn people off. If someone is starting to learn a new language you would not criticise them if they used words or pronounced things slightly wrong. That's not encouragement. I simply cannot believe the importance put on this tiny issue! Win people over THEN fine tune the usage stuff.2) Trillion dollars and huge quantities of babies dying because of the use of imperial (USC) - no one is going to take that seriously. Quite literally.3) The er versus re debate. Life's too short to concentrate on why certain countries spell things differently. Germans use -er and they're probably the most metric nation on earth - it does not seem to cause them issues.That's my 2-pence worth on the subject of winning people over. Feel free to ignore it completely if you wish.From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [USMA:41994] Re: A trillion dollarsDate: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:05:21 -0800
I don't think citing the $1 trillion figure will help our cause, because it's not a credible figure. There are certainly costs, borne internationally. But the entire annual GDP of the US is only $14 trillion. The analysis related to education costs is pretty questionable. There would be some recalibration of lesson plans if US customary units went away, and maybe a little time to teach something else, but the total dollars flowing into education would likely not change. Figures for industrial costs from 1915 are also not very informative; a lot has changed in the US since then, including the metrication of medicine and many US products and industries. If there really a lot of money to be made converting, market forces fix that, as happened in the US auto industry. I suspect much of the expense we bear today stems from the cumulative impact of tiny incremental costs on a range of products that are sold internationally; all those separate speedometer dials, product labels, Fahrenheit thermometers, and redubbed science shows on TV, remade especially for us. Pennies here and there are passed on to consumers, and over the scale of the US economy, it adds up to real money. Some of the other factors in this analysis, like lost orders, etc., are also probably real. But it's not 7% of GDP. From: Pat Naughtin Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 1:31 AM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:41981] A trillion dollars Dear All, As most of you know, I sometimes refer to the article Cost of non-metrication in the USA (http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf ) where I estimate that not using the metric system costs the USA a bit over a trillion dollars each year. However, I am also well aware that '1 trillion dollars' is impossible to bring to mind as it is far too big a number. Here is a reference where Rob Simpson has made an attempt to make the concept of '1 trillion dollars' real. He does this by estimating what you could buy with '1 trillion dollars'. The dot points at the bottom of the page open to reveal the estimates for each area of public expense or you can go on a '1 trillion dollar' spending spree (theoretically of course). You will find the reference at http://www.whatwecouldhavedonewiththemoney.com/ Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. _________________________________________________________________ BigSnapSearch.com - 24 prizes a day, every day - Search Now! http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/117442309/direct/01/
