I once lived overseas for a decade and had the chance to travel to over two dozen countries. In some places I've seen street kids picking grain kernels out of horse poop to eat. I had culture shock coming to the US but I sure do like it here. I pay fewer taxes than other's with the same life expectancy do. I have one of the best education levels. I have access to clean drinking water. As far as bags of free goodies, $3,650 net is all an individual needs to be included among the wealthiest 50% of the world’s population, however in North America — the US and Canada — where the average adult has assets worth $340,000, in the world’s wealthiest region, I don't need a paid vacation, I don't need paid maternity leave, I don't need my medical bills paid for by someone else. I guess I just like being in control of my own life is all.

Oh, and I think English units are best used for fractions, as a Landscape Architect myself, working with fractions is a lot easier than decimal points.

and I think English units are best used for fractions, working with fractions is a lot easier than decimal points.

Metric 4 EVER!! . But isn't America on the Imperial system? It's a real headache to covert to metric - more so because Canada is right next to the US and I have to do those conversions almost every day  .

I leaned both very well.  Forced to being a car nut living in Australia where we all use metric here but much of the past automotive scene being US based and imperial.   In fact the GM cars when they were built here up to 2017, but mainly pre 2004 cars were German based chassis with American drive trains so metric and imperial existed together in the majority of cars here for decades as the majority were these GM German/US hybrids and Ford did a similar thing as well but I am not that familiar with the Fords. I know their chassis were metric and engine parts used imperial here and there.

One of my pet hates though is fasteners ARP make (US company) that are mixtures of both.  Say a M10 x 1 flywheel bolt with 7/16 head. Stupid!

I dont know why America is so backward in almost every way.  In my interactions with fellow Americans from New York and on these forums, the ones I know are all highly intelligent and thoughtful, but when I see maps like the ones above (and also when I have climate change arguments with deniers) I wonder how the country has gone so wrong- I know there is some connection to corporations and dark money lobbyists having far too great an influence in politics here.

Thats the thing, you arent in control of your own life at all.  Democracy and economic equality and mobility are all far higher in Canada and Europe and especially the Scandanavian countries which are all rated far higher by every available metric including happiness and life expectancy.  Universal healthcare, free college, healthier food with far less dangerous chemicals in them, etc.  Oh and there's not so small issue of gun violence, where 330,000 gun related deaths occurred in the US over the past year, while in those other countries, they only get anywhere from 50-150 per year.  This country is controlled by big money and their lobbyists.  Healthcare and medications are 5x more expensive in the US than they are in other countries, including Canada.  You pay 5x more for the same quality of care- it's a total ripoff.

I was reading about some of the pesticides allowed to be used in the United States thanks to the American Chemical lobby that aren't used in other parts of the world, the same chemicals that cause brain damage in children like Chlorpyrifos, and how they are sprayed on farms near school districts and how they affect pregnant women as well as children and the rise in rates of autism and ADHD in these areas and it absolutely turns by stomach how much America has regressed.

And be careful with the socalled clean drinking water, here in NY tap water makes me sick and a news report uncovered there being pesticides in the drinking water, and ever since then I've used a four stage filter on my water.  Water around here is not as clean as it used to be.

We have almost all the same problems emerge here in Australia and NZ in the last few decades.  I think it is mainly because we follow the US closely politically.   It's really quite bad seeing how we have gone backwards as well.

Yes that is another big problem with the US how they interfere with the rest of the world or try to.  I forgot to mention the surveillance state and police militarization, also big issues, in cities like Memphis, TN, the police have been following around and harassing people who are suing them for brutality and their families.

Didn't Canada switch because the US was going to? And then the US had a change of mind...

Too bad humans are born with only 10 fingers. Back around 1200AD (no pun intended) when the Roman numerals were passed up on in favor of the Arabic numerals we should have all converted to a duodecimal system (Dozenal or base 12).

Math and conversions would be so easy! We already use it for time (hours and months) and the zodiac. The "teens" don't start until 13, so we already have the words for it, just need the symbols and let it replace Common Core LOL! A few native languages in Nigeria use it though. We can use our knuckles as a counting method in duodecimal using the thumb as a pointer. An interesting side note I learned in the Middle East is a fist represents 5 and all fingers pointed out is 0. Pinky first, a Thumbs-up hand sign means 4 of course, and a cocked Finger-gun means 3.

We use 12 inches (from the Roman fractional system of 12 called unica) in a foot, 12 troy ounces in a troy pound, 12 pence in a shilling, and Chinese compasses use the 12 Earthly Branches, a dozen eggs is standard, and a gross (a dozen squared). A great gross is 12 cubed or 1728.

12 is the smallest number with four non-trivial factors (2, 3, 4, 6) and all four numbers within the subitizing range (1, 2, 3, 4) giving an increased factorability of the radix and divisibility by a wide range of elemental numbers. (10 only has 2 non-trivial factors 2 & 5). Because its factors 2 and 3 are prime the five most common fractions (1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/4. and 3/4) all have short terminating representation. You can just as easily do the dozenal multiplication tables in your head as with the decimal system, but division becomes extremely easy. But since metric has dominated the world, the hope for going Dozenal is probably doomed.

Meanwhile the Sumerians used a base 60 system lol- that's how we have our degrees (hours), minutes and seconds.

I like binary system the best. 10 good reasons are it's simple and computers use it.

In my interactions with fellow Americans from New York and on these forums, the ones I know are all highly intelligent and thoughtful, but when I see maps like the ones above (and also when I have climate change arguments with deniers) I wonder how the country has gone so wrong

Well, I can testify that there are idiots everywhere A-L-E-X . Raw brain-power is not based off of kith or country - but I think it is the effects of ignorance and poor education that you referring to here and in your other posts. I don't think it is any secret that the American school-system is very bad. So is the Canadian one, though on average probably better then the US. Now I'm not saying that the North American education system is utter tripe all the time, but needless to say it was a bit of an appalling shock to me when I moved here from Europe.

Didn't Canada switch because the US was going to?

Yes we did. In fact the entire WORLD is actually supposed to switch to metric, because it's so easy and mathematically logical to use. The only countries that don't are Myanmar, U.S.A., and Liberia. Ahh, the US has such excellent company there on the list... which is true for almost all of their international listings.  Plus Myanmar is actually in the process of going metric anyway, so....

10 good reasons are it's simple and computers use it.

What are the other 8 ?

I think it was Homer Simpson that pointed out that if God wanted us to use the metric system, then he would have given us ten fingers.

In my interactions with fellow Americans from New York and on these forums, the ones I know are all highly intelligent and thoughtful, but when I see maps like the ones above (and also when I have climate change arguments with deniers) I wonder how the country has gone so wrong

Well, I can testify that there are idiots everywhere A-L-E-X . Raw brain-power is not based off of kith or country - but I think it is the effects of ignorance and poor education that you referring to here and in your other posts. I don't think it is any secret that the American school-system is very bad. So is the Canadian one, though on average probably better then the US. Now I'm not saying that the North American education system is utter tripe all the time, but needless to say it was a bit of an appalling shock to me when I moved here from Europe.

Didn't Canada switch because the US was going to?

Yes we did. In fact the entire WORLD is actually supposed to switch to metric, because it's so easy and mathematically logical to use. The only countries that don't are Myanmar, U.S.A., and Liberia. Ahh, the US has such excellent company there on the list... which is true for almost all of their international listings.  Plus Myanmar is actually in the process of going metric anyway, so....

10 good reasons are it's simple and computers use it.

What are the other 8 ?

You are quite right lol.  I cant say my good education was due to any great brain power on my part though, I simply went to private school through about the first 2 months of 4th grade and when I got into public school I was shellshocked at the large class sizes and how perpetually mean the kids were to each other.  As a result of a poor social life my two main interests became astronomy and birds.  Four of the first books I ever read were- H A Rey's Stars-  A New Way to See Them,  Birds Of The World, and Ben Bova's In Quest of Quasars as well as The Audubon Guide to Eastern North American Birds, that's what my social life consisted of between Grade 4 and Grade 6 in elementary school lol.  I guess that also means my education came from the books I read and not sitting in a classroom.....

What are the other 8 ?

There are 10 kinds of people.  Those who understand jokes about binary and those who don't.