Has the US government ever done an official study to say for sure how much money American business loses (if they really do) from not being metric? If not why not?
Jerry ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 4:54:35 PM Subject: [USMA:43689] Re: Arizona I-19 losing kilometer signs On 2009/03/12, at 3:14 AM, John Frewen-Lord wrote: It goes back to the old message about what sticking with customary measures really costs the average American. Pat Naughtin did some work on this, and came up with something like 9% (if memory serves) of the total US GDP. I once (as an economist - construction) also did some numbers, and while I came to a much lower figure, it was still huge. And this is an annually recurring cost. Americans, probably more than any other nation, truly value not spending any more on what is perceived to be government and other non-discretionary spending than they have to. If we can get the message out to enough people, that having two systems is costing the US economy big time, perhaps Arizona and all other States, as well as the Federal Government, might start to look at the big picture. Converting would be a good way to both provide short term economic stimulus at a time when jobs are disappearing fast (as evidenced by last week's Non Farm Payroll) AND improve the US's competitiveness in the longer term. Dear John, Here is the reference to the 8 page article, Cost of non-metrication in the USA: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf I still like the line: To paraphrase the USA Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896/1969): 'a trillion this year, and a trillion next year, pretty soon adds up to real money' Remember, also, that metrication is a one-off expense, but not going metric is an on going expense that goes on year after year. I have not seen your analysis when you 'did some numbers'. Is this available to share? I don't know of any other, better, studies of the cost of non-metrication in the USA. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
