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why is the US not Metric

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Tepe:

--- Quote from: rstofer on December 08, 2019, 03:51:23 pm ---Anybody keep track of Nobel Prizes by country?  The US doesn't quite keep up with the idea that we have more than all the other countries combined but it's surprisingly close.  Somehow our 'morons' are smarter than everybody else's 'morons', combined.

--- End quote ---
Try it per capita and the US is only #15:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Nobel_laureates_per_capita

KL27x:
^This isn't about the intelligence of a country's population.

There is a gap in technology in certain areas. But as v6kgzo has noted in the example of the car industry, this is largely due to history, size of economy, and government priorities in spending and subsidization. This should be expected. It would be a waste of resources for every nation on the planet to spend 100 billion a year on building the next generation of airplanes and rockets. There are still people without AC and the internet. :)

CatalinaWOW:

--- Quote from: KL27x on December 08, 2019, 05:05:12 pm ---^This isn't about the intelligence of a country's population.

There is a gap in technology in certain areas. But as v6kgzo has noted in the example of the car industry, this is largely due to history, size of economy, and government priorities in spending and subsidization. This should be expected. It would be a waste of resources for every nation on the planet to spend 100 billion a year on building the next generation of airplanes and rockets. There are still people without AC and the internet. :)

--- End quote ---

It would be efficient on a global level to have only one region develop rockets and airplanes.  But efficiency isn't the only factor in play and so there are at least five (Number depends on how you count.  US, Europe, China, Russia and Brazil are my list.  Some would leave Brazil and China off.  Others would add a couple more.)  Some of those other factors are involved in the metrification discussion.

rstofer:

--- Quote from: KL27x on December 08, 2019, 04:38:28 pm ---I pretty much agree with a lot of your sentiment, rstopher, but I think the tone is a bit needlessly harsh and the post a bit unfocused. We were making some progress, here. Don't open the door, again. :)

--- End quote ---
And you don't think being called stupid or morons because we don't follow the path of low rent countries equally harsh?
I get tired of hearing about it!  We're not going to convert - ever.  If we wanted to do it we would have done it 50 years ago and we didn't.
And despite our ignorant population, we have succeeded far beyond any other country despite a sizable unproductive segment in our population.

As long as other countries are dependent on our contributions in terms of money, technology, military or trade, the least they could do is STFU!  Post back after you have made 6 lunar landings with 12 astronauts walking on the surface.  But before you reach those goals, please remember, your opinion is worthless.  Your country has accomplished nothing!

rstofer:

--- Quote from: Tepe on December 08, 2019, 04:44:33 pm ---
--- Quote from: rstofer on December 08, 2019, 03:51:23 pm ---Anybody keep track of Nobel Prizes by country?  The US doesn't quite keep up with the idea that we have more than all the other countries combined but it's surprisingly close.  Somehow our 'morons' are smarter than everybody else's 'morons', combined.

--- End quote ---
Try it per capita and the US is only #15:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Nobel_laureates_per_capita

--- End quote ---

We do have a sizable unproductive segment in our population.  Smaller and more homogeneous countries tend to fare better in that metric.

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