Jean :
I agree that world wide standards are a Good Thing.
Still, in defense of us "spoiled rotten" Americans, the US already has
an area 90% the size of all Europe with a common language, common
currency, and common measurement systems (not just highway distance, but
all measurements).
To put it another way, if I were to go visit FT, I would drive about
3000 miles (almost 5000km) each way without ever having to change money,
switch sides of the road, speak a different language, translate between
miles and kilometers or buy gas in liters instead of gallons.
Since it is a very common thing (becoming less so, I suppose) for people
to spend their entire lives without ever leaving the US, perhaps you'll
excuse us for being somewhat slow to tear down the system we were born
into. For someone who will only occasionally travel outside the US,
it's difficult to show that the pain of learning a new system is
justified. You might have somewhat the same reaction if I were to
suggest that it would be much better if Luxembourg were to switch to
Esperanto as it's official language.
Randall
"J.H. Roulleaux" wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> I read this threat with great interest and I'm flabbergasted by the
> reactions of some listers. You Americans are spoiled rotten and
> believe me the metric system will make life even more easy.Of
> course at a certain age it is sometimes hard to adapt yourself to a
> a new system, but ask your kids they know how it works.
> If you have travelled in Europe you have reasons to bother, in my
> daily life when I travel for more than 25 miles I need :
> - 3 different currencies: Dutch Guilders, German Dmark,Belgian
> Franc.
> - 3 different languages: Dutch,French,German
<snip>
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