On 2009/03/12, at 3:14 AM, John Frewen-Lord wrote:
It goes back to the old message about what sticking with customary
measures really costs the average American. Pat Naughtin did some
work on this, and came up with something like 9% (if memory serves)
of the total US GDP. I once (as an economist - construction) also
did some numbers, and while I came to a much lower figure, it was
still huge. And this is an annually recurring cost.
Americans, probably more than any other nation, truly value not
spending any more on what is perceived to be government and other
non-discretionary spending than they have to. If we can get the
message out to enough people, that having two systems is costing the
US economy big time, perhaps Arizona and all other States, as well
as the Federal Government, might start to look at the big picture.
Converting would be a good way to both provide short term economic
stimulus at a time when jobs are disappearing fast (as evidenced by
last week's Non Farm Payroll) AND improve the US's competitiveness
in the longer term.
Dear John,
Here is the reference to the 8 page article, Cost of non-metrication
in the USA: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf
I still like the line:
To paraphrase the USA Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896/1969):
'a trillion this year, and a trillion next year, pretty soon adds up
to real money'
Remember, also, that metrication is a one-off expense, but not going
metric is an on going expense that goes on year after year.
I have not seen your analysis when you 'did some numbers'. Is this
available to share? I don't know of any other, better, studies of the
cost of non-metrication in the USA.
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]
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