It's a good article Pat in the link you provided, and perhaps I can add a couple of (anecdotal) items supporting your premise:
1. Canadian architects and engineers that I worked with would openly quote two fee schedules for routine activities such as preparing shop or detail drawings, one for metric, one for imperial. The fee schedule for imperial would be anywhere from 10% to 15% higher, reflecting the extra work involved 2. For a time in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Canadian producers of plywood and gypsum wallboard maintained two production lines - imperial (4ft x 8ft) for the USA (their major export market) and metric (2400 mm x 4800 mm) for the Canadian domestic market. It proved too expensive, as the Canadian metric market was a small fraction of the huge USA export market. Consequently, most metric sizes of these panels have diappeared, even for the Canadian metric market. But it does highlight the expense of maintaining production lines in two measurement systems. As Canada is now catering ever more to the (metric) world market (because of the downturn in the US market for construction materials), and more and more producers abandoning the imperial USA market, there will be less competition within the USA, and prices (and hence costs) will increase for American purchasers of construction services and products. I don't whether it is possible to measure such increases - but they are, or will be, very real, thereby making America ever less competitive in the world. John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Naughtin To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 7:07 PM Subject: [USMA:48994] Costs of non-metrication Dear All, I have lightly edited and added some material to the article, "Costs of non-metrication in the USA" that you can access from http://metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY 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 for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
