Why do you think the Metric System didn't catch on in the USA

B00Mer

B00Mer

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Why do you think the Metric System didn't catch on in the USA

Back in the 1970s and '80s, they sure tried to get Americans to switch to the metric system. But it just didn't work. Why do you think we said "no" to metric, despite the "Go Metric" campaign?

 
gopher

gopher

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The answer is an easy one - baseball is still the All American game. We love the crack of a bat and to see the home run ball reach 400 feet. Not 122 meters. Years ago they put meter signs on the outfield walls. Everybody hated it and they were removed. As we say in Brooklyn, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
Bar Sinister

Bar Sinister

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Although the USA considers itself the most progressive nation on the planet, thanks to heavy indoctrination by its media and educational system; it is actually quite conservative in many respects. That is why it still clings to the one-cent piece, the paper dollar, and an archaic system of measurement that is not only hard to learn, but also hard to use. Unfortunately, that forces many Americans to learn two systems of measurement. Anyone who wants a science career has to learn metric and that goes for a lot of other jobs in tech and even the automobile industry.
 
C

Cliffy

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Nov 19, 2008
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Cliffy said:
They can't handle change. Why would the greatest country on the planet want to change?
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And Wally proves, once again, that he not only can't handle change, he can't handle the truth. It must be hard living in a hermetically sealed bubble. His brain must be starving for oxygen.
 
C

Curious Cdn

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gopher said:
The answer is an easy one - baseball is still the All American game. We love the crack of a bat and to see the home run ball reach 400 feet. Not 122 meters. Years ago they put meter signs on the outfield walls. Everybody hated it and they were removed. As we say in Brooklyn, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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What amazes me is that such a large portion of the population (during the Vietnam era, anyway) have served in the military, there and used the metric system during their service and it was all forgotten and fell away after they are discharged. The US Army has been metric since...Korea?
 
Danbones

Danbones

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Right down to the deepest parts of it's backwoods red necked heart.
:)
 
Tecumsehsbones

Tecumsehsbones

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Curious Cdn said:
Yeah, really. How can you be the most progressive country when you are really the whole enchilada and no one else is on the radar screen?

(Nice mixed metaphor, eh?)
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No, I was asking if we really claim to be the most progressive country in the world. I suppose the problem lies in the definition Bar Sinister uses for "progressive" in this case.
 
10larry

10larry

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When I watch the ti-cats lose yet another the game commentary is always in yards, beaten within an inch of his life sounds odd when converted, beaten within 25.4 millimetres of his life. A short little guy becomes half .473175 litre instead of half pint...something gets lost.
Anyway I was in food basics the other day and overheard a customer ask a store employee where the lb. markings where on their weight scale. She replied there are none it's all metric so he asked why bananas are priced @ .59 per lb., she offered a standard political reply and simply shrugged.
 
darkbeaver

darkbeaver

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The USA did not adopt the metric system because they did not invent it. The metric system will eventually creep into the USA, it already has in many forward thinking adventures.
 
taxslave

taxslave

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B00Mer said:
Why do you think the Metric System didn't catch on in the USA

Back in the 1970s and '80s, they sure tried to get Americans to switch to the metric system. But it just didn't work. Why do you think we said "no" to metric, despite the "Go Metric" campaign?

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That is easy. Big Business didn't want to retool.
A far better question iswhy , after 30+ years is Canada still only half metric? ANd why do the metric bolt head sizesused in NA not use the same size wrenches common in Asia and Europe?
 
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