America Needs to Catch Up with the World

We’re falling behind the rest of the world.

That might seem like a completely contrary statement. I grew up being told repeatedly that we are the greatest country on earth. I couldn’t have everything I saw in stores or on TV but I could certainly see what was available. We were told that no other countries had that much stuff.

We never cared where it was made. We just wanted it. For many years, anything made in Japan was considered cheap junk. But we bought it because it was cheap enough for us to take the risk and to have something to complain about.

It seemed like any reference to European countries (including the ones our ancestors were from) made them seem old. The photos and film clips we often saw were from post-WWII showing overcrowded, narrow streets and centuries-old buildings. They seemed like the antique part of the world.

We saw the rest of the world as either communist, poor, or very overcrowded. The photos we saw of those areas were worse than those of Europe. I sometimes wondered how people could survive anywhere but here.

That was my impression when I was about 10 in the midst of the Cold War.

What’s the (Decimal) Point?

Then one day we began a study of the metric system of measurement, developed in France. It was easy to see the value of it. If you can count to 10 and understand multiples and divisions of 10, it’s easy to convert from one unit to another just by moving a decimal point. Easy-peasy.

But when I thought more about it, I wondered why the greatest nation in the world isn’t already using it. Is there something they’re not telling us about it? Maybe we exercise our brains better by having to know that a foot is 12 inches, a yard is three feet, a gallon is four quarts or eight pints or 16 cups. Freezing is 32 degrees and water boils at 212.

The main problem back then was that we were only taught how to convert between the British (imperial) system and the metric system. From that point on we should have started to use the metric system exclusively.

But to make that work, everyone would have to start using the metric system by a certain date. It even has a name: metrication (or metrification). But because changing the way we measure things isn’t quite as urgent as, say, changing which side of the road we drive on, it wasn’t deemed important enough to get done.

I suspect it had something to do with making more money by forcing us to have each set of tools – separate wrenches and socket sets, a meter stick and a yardstick, separate measuring containers or ones with a measuring line delineating metric values on one side and imperial on the other. Thermometers already do this.

Maybe we are too arrogant to change. Today, besides us, only Liberia, in West Africa, and Myanmar, in Southeast Asia officially use the imperial system. Really. Even Britain has jumped on board, although the imperial system is still used for important things like measuring beer. US businesses already use the metric system for global trade.

Innovations from Elsewhere

We lead the world in many ways, but we are not the center of the world. Other countries have plenty to offer. I realized that when I got older and started to read my dad’s Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines. A lot of important inventions were from overseas.

These were things like the radio, the car, the computer, printing, aspirin, TV, the spacesuit, CD player, video games, LED monitors. Suddenly, the stuff made in Japan was innovative and high quality. Japan alone has more patents than the US. We may think that most things are invented here. But I wonder if that’s because we had the funds and manufacturing resources to further advance their inventions (and make a boat load of money).

We are now getting serious about recycling, alternative sources of energy, and better transportation – areas where we’re playing catch-up to many other countries. Sorting systems for recycling, power-generating windows and high-speed rail service are examples. And roundabouts, which we all need to get accustomed to. They are here to stay because they keep traffic flowing and decrease accidents.

Do we want to improve rail service so air traffic isn’t as congested? Europe has reliable rail service almost everywhere. Many countries have high-speed rail. We don’t have either. Sometimes, if it’s not invented here, we don’t want it or we’ll take our time implementing it.

That seems to be the case with the metric system. I suspect it doesn’t play well in politics because no candidates seem to dare ply those waters.

Winston Churchill once said, “Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.”

America, we’ve tried everything else. Let’s get metricated.