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Why isn't the U.S. Metric?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jedi Weyoun: [QB] Hmm. A good point, but I propose a counterpoint: being among the few left in the world (the only?) who still do [i]not[/i] use metric, I think it would be beneficial for us (the U.S. namely) to convert to the system for convenience sake. Think about it. In Europe they pushed for a common currency...that certainly makes sense to me--less conversions to be made. I, for one, college student living in a dorm room with all it's lack of amenities, have an enormous problem when it comes to measuring out amounts of this or that to go into some 'ready-to-go' dinner. I have almost NO knowledge of the metric system, so when the only thing i have to measure with is metric (which yes, albeit isn't too often, but i'm speaking more hypothetically here i suppose) i'm at a loss. A few years ago i took a student exchange trip to Australia and New Zealand. WHew! Blow me away...I totally loved both places, but when it came to doing something with metric, I was up a creek. I mean, OUR system is confusing, as it is, without there being more countries out there using metric than whatever we call ours....non-metric? Maybe I'm just showing my own ignorance here, but does it even *have* a name? That in itself says something...if only about the egocentricity of our nation. So here lie my reasons for switching to metric: 1--We no longer live in the state of semi-isolation that perhaps we once did. Everyone has contact with everyone else these days. It naturally makes sense to "speak the common language" as it were. 2--Follow up to #1: The "common language" seems to be English, at least in many places around the world. It's been my observation that quite a few Europeans have more than one language that they know well, whereas, the majority of Americans know one--their own. That puts us in an [i]awfully[/i] crippling situation, wouldn't you agree? A friend was telling me about a guy he knows how saw a guy wearing a T-shirt he got from some Chinese gift shop or something, perhaps in ChinaTown. He was proudly boasting this shirt, with 'cool chinese writing' on it, completely oblivious to the message it read in Chinese: "I am a stupid American." *L* No joke--honestly. That's just an example. We're behind the times here, and it's to our own disadvantage. 3--Simply this: what kind of message are we sending other countries, even our own children, in saying we refuse to change the way we have been doing things, even if it may seem backward and antiquidated to some? Probably this--that we are, again, to egocentric to change our stubborn way of thinking, and instead would rather continue what we are used to, and have everyone else bend over backwards to meet our needs. I talk to foreign friends of mine, and when we get talking about things like temperature, weight, stuff like that, I have no clue what conversion rates are--quite a few of them do, however, much to my chagrin. I have NO CLUE what my weight converts to in kilos...what my height converts to in meters (or metres... *L* ;-), and when the weather outside is frightful, I don't know how to convert Farenheit to Celcius or Centegrade...or are those two one in the same now? *once again, showing her ignorance...*L* Anyway...I'm certainly an advocate of gradually changing the system. Heck--in grade school they were teaching me centimeters...why haven't we REALLY had to use that for anything since? I didn't go into science or math in university...and I don't intend to. In fact, I never have to take another math class...unless they change the policy *erk* and I'm trying my best to get around the chemistry and physics type classes that I haven't the brain power for...no doubt partly b/c they employ metric, and I never learned it, beyond centimeters, and that theres 100 cm in one meter. Not sure how many meters in a kilometer...i'm guessing 1,000, since in anthropology we use kya to denote #1000 years ago. Beyond that, I'm hopelessly ignorant. Quite sad, IMO. Anyway, nuf said...I've been at this one for QUITE a while now *L* Hope I haven't offended anyone...if so, well...accept my apologies. It wasn't my intention, just my opinion. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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