People do not like to change the way that they do things unless:
-- it's fairly easy to do so and
-- they see a huge payoff in making the change.
Otherwise, folks will continue to do things the way they have habitually
done them. Even the marketing of microwave ovens took more than 20 years
before they became "necessities" in the minds of the public. Some people
still think personal computers are either "too hard" or "not useful in
their lives" and so they still don't have one in their homes.
Let's look at seat belts in cars. They are easy to use but many people
don't see a payoff for using them. (Yes, that's partly because they are
uneducated in physics.) Therefore, many states have moved lack of seat
belt usage from secondary offense status (ticketed if stopped for
another reason) to primary status (stopped and ticketed if non-usage was
observed) in an effort to bring the "payoff" home. Got $250 in your wallet?
In my mind, that's the reason that full metrication of the American
public will not be possible until the U.S. government declares
non-metric weights and measures to have no legal validity, allowing them
to become anything an advertiser wishes them to be -- like "two scoops
of raisins". Then, if you buy "a pound" of something and it turns out to
be closer to 100 g, you are done in by your own recalcitrance and
stubborn ignorance. After a while, you would learn that your pocketbook
would benefit from noting and deciding on the basis of the metric
package indications. This will go faster if non-metric indications are
banned from packaging, ads, etc., but the industry will object to that
and such a provision will not be politically feasible -- until some time
after folks have lived with a permissible metric-only FPLA.
In industry companies go metric because it pays off, not because they
feel some moral or aesthetic obligation to do so. In fact, the Metric
Conversion Act of 1975 has no real effect on industrial decisions except
to allow them the option to let economics make that decision.
Cooks in the U.S. will not normally go metric in the kitchen since
packaging still includes metric indications (the metric indications,
when present, are ignored by the consumer), the bulk of kitchen gadgets
include or are labeled solely in non-metric markings, oven dials are in
degrees Fahrenheit only, and 99.99 % of the recipes published in books,
magazines, and newspapers are in non-metric units.
Recall that in the early '70s, our economy was sliding, our trade
balance was declining, and newly industrialized (and metric) countries
were entering the global economy, which in turn was starting to greatly
overshadow national economy issues. Americans had a sense that they were
entering a game of "catch-up ball". That's what sold the public on the
American Conversion Act, but some sectors of industry balked, namely the
ones NOT affected so much by global issues, such as the food marketing
and building trades.
I can see a benefit to a few years of permissible metric-only labeling
in the marketplace, but essentially it's going to take a federal mandate
(a fiat!) to metricate the U.S., rather like what Australia did. (But NO
MORE millimeter v. centimeter postings on this thread -- please! -- go
get your own thread.)
Jim
Paul Trusten wrote:
When I posted an item on my pharmacy blog about the metric system, one
person commented, "That's fine, but keep it out of my kitchen!"
That was an interesting response. We usually have to deal with
nationalism, or just plain stubbornness, when someone opposes metric
so pointedly, but the dislike of metric units in cooking is a different
prejudice. As a pharmacist, I found myself /wanting /to use metric units
on this very point. The symbol for pharmacy or a prescription, "Rx," is
actually shorthand for rhe word "recipe," and a prescription can be
considered just that: a list of ingredients along with directions for
preparation. Compounding medications requires objectivity and accuracy,
but why do you think people who enjoy preparing food from recipes have a
nerve struck on metrication?
This whole subject is particularly engaging because USMA member Sally
Mitchell is particularly emphatic about using the metric system in cooking.
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association.Inc.
www.metric.org <http://www.metric.org>
trus...@grandecom.net <mailto:trus...@grandecom.net>
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
