To the Editor, TIME: In his article alleging U.S. decline (TIME, 3 March 2011), Fareed Zakaria reminds us of the roles of the Interstate Highway System and the space program as investments in America's future. But, as many Americans do, he has hidden from discussion an often concealed instrument of progress, one yet to be measured: U.S. changeover to the metric standard of measurement.
America's reluctance to part with its archaic, imperial-era measurement system is pathognomonic for the "sclerosis" Zakaria describes. It bespeaks of a stubborn nationalism that we would be wise to jettison, not beginning in 10 years, but beginning now. We have been approaching metrication for almost 150 years, and Zakaria's thesis beckons us to cross over at last. U.S. transition to the world's decimal measurement system, already supported in U.S. society by the metric legal definition of traditional units (see www.metric.org/laws/mendenhall.html), decimal currency, and a newly decimal stock exchange, will be a huge stimulus to American science and exports. Surely, the metric system is the 800-kilogram gorilla in the room. It is time to break the silence on metrication, and work speedily to achieve this old national goal. Paul R. Trusten Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, I 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 United States www.metric.org [email protected] +1(432)528-7
