Time for Federal and State goverments to go metric?

Question

Will it ever be cheaper or easier to do?

New law would require that all communication with government
(including proposals, new bills, speeding limits, etc) be in metric
measurements (perhaps with English standard in subtype).

Companies and individuals not communicating with the
government are free to continue to use the English Standard
system (or any other system).

Not cheap - but never cheaper. Ultimately reduce
communication costs for companies, reduce cost of
education since metric is easier to teach and less
error prone.

Is it time now?

Its true. Government has an "n" in it.

Yes, it failed in the 70s for two reasons -
one, the business community didn't know it.
We've now had 2 genereations of students
that learned it.

Two - it was associated with communism
which is ludicrous as communism has
pretty much gone by the way-side, and
every other country in the world but us
and one other uses it.

The attempt in the 70s was doomed due
to silly people associating it with
communism.

The "America we know and love" continues
with an archaic standard that every other
country in the world had rejected in favor
of a simpler, more logical, less error prone
system.

We do this purely to be different? As
a tax payer, you are paying for this
difference. You also pay for it with
every thing you buy that was built or
produced overseas, since somebody
has to pay for the conversion.

Answer 1

The sooner the better, from an economic point of view. The cost of maintaining a dual system would be far better served elsewhere.

The best method of implementation is cold turkey. Have a metric day for a particular unit. For example, starting on the metric day for temperature, all weather forecasts would be issued in Celsius only, thermostats, stoves, backyard thermometers would be sold with only Celsius. On kilometer day, all speed limits would change to km/h. In Canada, this was implemented over Labour Day weekend, 1977, with the use of stick-on signs over existing units.

People use what they know and use what is there. If you use metric, you will get to know it fairly quickly. If dual units are available, people will naturally gravitate to the system they have always used, the other unit being a waste of space.

Answer 2

yes. It's overdue. It's hard to believe people can't divide by 10 as easily as by 12, 36, 5280, 3 or any of the other numbers associated with our antiquated system. It's time to join the rest of the world, if for no other reason than it is scientifically sensible.
Here is one good reason, a mistake that cost our space program a lot of money:
"September 23, 1999 - NASA's $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft breaks up as it enters the Martian atmosphere due to confusion among its constructors between metric and old English measuring units. "

Answer 3

hell no they tried that crap back in the 70's and it failed MISERABLY!

first of all the students DID NOT learn metric just that x+y= what the hell ever and it was Britian that started it not the commies.

second 2+2=5 in ANY hillbilly math book.

Third the universal math is BINARY 0 and 1 square roots of 1 2 3

Answer 4

Long past time. The British system is so bad even the British got rid of it.

Answer 5

Haven't we given up enough of our Americanism, now we can't even count and measure the way we want..... I say stop this crap now and take back the America we all know and love.....

Answer 6

With politicians involved in the decision making, it will ONLY be "time" when they get enough $$$ in their pockets.