The Metric System: why doesn't the USA switch now?

[shootingstar]

11 hours ago, MickinMD said:

So even the English abandoned English measurements by the 80's - and to their advantage!

In the USA Caterpillar stopped buying 1" (25.4 mm.) thick flooring grates from American Steelmakers when a Swedish company could supply a 25 mm. thick grate cheaper.  The next English measurement available from American companies was too thin.

The excuse for the American resistance to Decimalization was that our huge industrial nation was completely set up for feet, inches, etc. and it would be too expensive to switch to the Metric System.

But we've already partially and maybe mostly done so.  Most of the automobiles sold in the USA require metric tools to work on them.  If you buy a large set of sockets, wrenches, etc., they often come as two sets in one: one set in inches and one set in millimeters - meaning you have to buy double the tools because we were too stupid to switch to the metric system half a century ago!

When Americans manufacture things intended for export that include bolts, nuts, etc. - they have to be manufactured in metric dimensions because no one else uses Imperial Measures anymore!  And our cars are probably the only ones in the world that have two scales on the speedometer - one for mph and one for kph.

So haven't we reached the point where it would be cheaper to go metric altogether?  Our export products would be cheaper since the manufacturer only needs metric-based machinery!

I know, as a chemist, that it is much, much easier in the lab to work with grams, kilograms, milliliters (1 g of water occupies 1 mL) Liters, etc.  You can argue that Fahrenheit is a more accurate measurement to the whole degree than Celsius/Centigrade because there a 9F degrees for every 5C degrees.  But that's not as important as weight and volume for industry and home use - or even in the lab.

Let's go metric!

Well the smart U.S. firms that did already figure out cost savings long-term, have moved already. Going metric, probably doesn't mean anything to small, purely local businesses.

I haven't paid attention to international bike races outside the US....I guess it's metric announcements.