I was watching the evening news tonight, and they noted that the latest
round of the stimulus bill has $198 million to benefit Filipino veterans of
WW II. I have nothing against those guys, but that's in the ballpark of the
1990s cost estimate was for changing all US road signs to metric. And that
appropriation is maybe a couple of percent of the entire bill.
A major national initiative like converting to the metric system is not
going to be slipped into a bill like this at the last minute, unfortunately.
I could only imagine the shock and uproar if it were. But this serves again
to make a mockery of those who argue that switching is somehow too
expensive. Within the context of the US economy, it's not money.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Pierre Abbat" <[email protected]>
Sent: 02/13/2009 7:44 PM
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:42994] Re: Action: We urgently need your help on the
stimulus packge
On Friday 13 February 2009 10:17:11 Nat Hager III wrote:
I'm watching that one too, to see what the final call is on NSF funding.
http://thomas.loc.gov/
But I don't see the final pdf posted, and even at that neither the House
nor Senate versions posted earlier said anything about metric.
Looking through the bill for various words, I find all sorts of provisions
that have nothing whatsoever to do with stimulating the economy. A search
for "kilogram" turned up empty. A search for "pound" turned up something
about schools making reports about whether their floors contain volatile
organic compounds, a modification to the Internal Revenue code about
deducting interest for vehicles, and something about inspection of downer
cows.
I know we're all here for the metric system, but I'm sure that's not
everyone's only issue. This bill is full of charcuterie. Please read the
bill
and alert your legislators of anything that should be removed.
Pierre
