I keep wondering why some of you call this "biased". It's not a political discussion, there's nothign to be biased about.
Especially ridiculous when your entire argument is based around changing a word in songs. Goes to show that the resistance against metric conversion is nothing but stubborn refusal with no basis in reason or logic.
Also, in sweden, we have something called "mil" after kilometer. 10 kilometers is 1 mil. I'm quite sure that's part of the metric system.
I am all for metric (from France) however kelvin would make much more sense than celcius :<. That being said their units do scale so it's not that far off =].
The greater importance of some things doesn't equals to other things shouldn't or couldn't be done as well. The equal function and success of many parts of the system of society is what makes a working nation, not one thing over another. Just felt I needed to point that out.
---------- Post added 2012-12-21 at 06:55 PM ----------
Simply because the American public is still so much against higher taxes. People need to realize that doing things costs money. But getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan would mean the US would get a lot more money for other things.
That really depends on perspective. I grew up in a town where 60% of the town made it's living through the government contractors that created system for the military to use. Many modern day conventions were invented because of original military purposes, GPS being a major one. Now these things may have been invented anyways, of course, but I wouldn't say that military spending is that much of a waste of money.
But like I said, that wasn't my point. I was just wondering if people sincerely think we should cut national defense spending in order to implement the Metric system.
In our current economic situation I'd be in favor of pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq just so we can stop spending that money period.Simply because the American public is still so much against higher taxes. People need to realize that doing things costs money. But getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan would mean the US would get a lot more money for other things.
Street signs, speedometers (I think most modern cars have both, but some like my own don't) which would cost money to the user themselves, gas stations, grocery stores, etc would all have to adjust to the change. I'm sure public awareness campaigns would have to be undertaken since not everyone keeps abreast on changes going on around them and might get confused by the changes.
So pretty much everything except those jobs that deal with things that uses the metric system.
I guess you could try a "we have to move money from this budget to this other budget so while we're doing that lets move more money into the other budget and fix other stuff" but I guess that's quite unlikely.
thing is most people are already educated in the metric system (well they should be) and you dont actually need everything in metric. The UK is a metric country but still uses miles/mph for vehicles certain measurements are still done or referred to in imperial depending on the age of the person or what your dealing with. Like a quarter inch vs 6.35ml.
thing that usa has that pisses me off the most.. month - day -year WTF is all that bout? it reallly makes no damned sense! Handing my passport as ID in Vegas and the retard going... this is fake there is no 30th month.. /FACEPALM!
1) It's not metric, it's SI.
2) Yes, the US should convert to SI. Point of fact, I would hazard a lot more money is wasted on doing conversions for products currently than would be spent metricating.
Originally Posted by Marjane Satrapi
Well that's just stupidity. I would think anyone would do a double take and realize what's going on with the passport.
As for your suggestion, if they want to do it that's fine, but I don't really see how it would really change anything. Any sector that needs Metric already uses it, and every other sector / the common public won't give two fucks as long as they know the distance to work and how tall you need to ride a roller coaster.
BTW, just curious, how do roller coasters in other countries give height requirements? Most over here say like, 42 inches which is 3 and a half feet. So is that 1 meter and 15 centimeters (or whatever it translates to)? Or is it just 315 centimeters? Etc.