Discussion»Questions»Outside the Mug» Instead of focusing so much on building his stupid wall why don't Donald focus on idea more practical like converting USA to metric system?
I honestly don't think it's a good idea at this point for us. We use the metric system in science but when it comes to the size of a bolt head or piece of lumber the advantages of over the other are fairly non-existent. Switching over to all that hardware would require needless retooling and just cause conflicts with our stock. I just don't see the reason for the transition really. Plus being versed in both systems I think helps. We have to use fractions and decimals both all the time and I think that's a good thing. Then again a lot of our stuff has a mix bag of standard and metric hardware so we are already halfway there. Okay I'll admit it. I dislike using ISO hardware and there system of IDing hardware is stupid as hell compared to standard.
The cost of changing over the road signs alone is enough reason not to. NYS did this monumentally stupid and wasteful thing a few years ago of changing the name of Parking Areas to Texting Areas. The cost of replacing all those metal road signs was astronomical. Especially for no gain.
Now upscale that to every sign in the country with MPH stated on it.
Yeah it's funny when it isn't your state who is taxing itself to death and then wasting money on some moronic crackpot expense. This 100% true. Straight from the brilliant minds of Andrew Cuomo's administration. Seriously if you ever have money you just can't throw away fast enough Albany is who you want to call.
I'm sure someone will come along and say if get's just one person to pull over it's worth it BS.
Oh come on... changing wild invoke thinking... abs we know or at least shadowy that's easy down on the lists of things to do with trump supporters ... But on s serious note ... we down here in oz did the sane thing in the 70s .. but out approach was different to yours ... we have a two year changeover period and that wad it ... my understanding is you guys left them to ruin side by side so of course everyone stuck to what they knew. Seriously the metric system is so much easier once you get used to it ... and Glis i work in a technology area and the hardware issue is s non event ... :)
Fair enough. I'm seriously not passionate either way. Though I would want to keep Fahrenheit. I just think the size of our country and the amount of existing standard stock for people I truly think would be a pointless cost. Well not pointless but limited gain.
Metric is easier I'll give you that. Here's the one major thing I am happy about growing up learning standard first and now knowing both. I kinda see at as similar to being fluent in more than one language. In terms of brain plasticity. Just like a polyglot thnks about things in different languages and that adds to their thinking of something. When I see a size I see it in two ways. Same with weight and yadda,yadda, yadda. Granted this is not an argument for keeping the system. There are situations though where using fractions is handier than more accurate decimals. I like being able to use both.
I won't argue against a personal preference ... we all have them ... abs yes the size of you're country is a tad bigger than ours so the costs would be more.
The Wall is more tangible. Besides our English to metric and metric to English conversion tables work so well. Every car has a speedometer in both metric and English and we still use mph. We Americans, what are you to do?
This post was edited by O-uknow at January 30, 2017 5:35 AM MST
Because we're Americans and we do things the hard way! (Look at Obamacare.)
We were one of the original signatories of the Metric Convention in 1875 so legally we should have been using it since back then but that would have been too easy.
Instead we did it the hard way by making up measurements that had the same names as British imperial measurements and they were close but not the same but then we defined our system that doesn't make any sense using metric units anyway like our foot is legally defined as 3937 feet = 1200m exactly.
Maybe Donald Trump can make the wall something like 17m high and cover it with solar panels. Then it could pay for itself by the electricity it generates.
Benedict Arnold 