why is the US not Metric

[KL27x]

All those pieces of metal will have to be kept in exactly the same temperature & atmospheric conditions while the "comparison" is taking place.

Which is what they do; make these things out of platinum and keep them in a controlled environment. The 17 nations splits the cost of maintaining these prototypes.

Scales and thermometers, etc. to make sure they get calibrated to the same prototypes in the same place at the same time under the same conditions. Not just to pass around their pieces of metal.

They don't do that at all!

The contract clearly states thermometers are calibrated at these meetings. That there is a fee for covering the cost of these meetings and for gaining access to these prototypes. And I would be shocked if they came just to see how shiny the prototypes are and not bring scales and micrometers as well. Knowing the meter in speed of light is great, but to measure that you will use instruments. And those instruments need calibration, too. Until you have had access to this prototype, you can't "calculate" what is the meter from the speed of light listed in meters. Unless you measure it in something else (like feet) and convert. Then are you getting the right "meter?" Or are you getting some error due the way you are measuring? What is the accepted speed of light, itself, is something that probably had input from the group work of these 17 nations.

If you consult wikipedia, the speed of light is exactly 2,9xx,xxx,xxx m/s, or w/e. And it is exact by definition of the meter. But if we were to discover an error between speed of light and this prototype, do you think we will change the proto to match (and all the metric screws and measuring equipment and land deeds)? Or do you think we will just adjust our definition of the speed of light? So which one is more important? We need the protos to calibrate the instruments to measure the speed of light.

You can't have your "conclave of Nations all crosschecking", & your "france just passed out a leaflet" at the same time.
In reality, there was no just "ok, got it" amongst the countries involved in the early days of Metrics.

My point was to refute that these prototypes were meaningless, and that the "defined by circumference of earth/speed of light" was what is important and makes metric great (America did the same thing to their customary by defining it in metric). America would have adopted metric sooner if they would have been able to afford the delegation when Jefferson was President. And/or if that pirate ship hadn't captured the boat carrying the kilo proto. Think about it. America changed the size of an inch to match with metric. This itself is huge. You only want to do that once. Much better to sit down with the other 17 nations and the protos before you do that.

I'm afraid neither of you know what a strawman argument is. I'm so confused how you both use this word. 

[vk6zgo]

All those pieces of metal will have to be kept in exactly the same temperature & atmospheric conditions while the "comparison" is taking place.

Which is what they do.

Scales and thermometers, etc. to make sure they get calibrated to the same prototypes in the same place at the same time under the same conditions. Not just to pass around their pieces of metal.

They don't do that at all!

The contract clearly states thermometers are calibrated at this meetings. It's interesting reading.

You can't have your "conclave of Nations all crosschecking", & your "france just passed out a leaflet" at the same time.
In reality, there was no just "ok, got it" amongst the countries involved in the early days of Metrics.

My point was to refute that these prototypes were meaningless, and that the "defined by circumference of earth/speed of light" was what is important. America would have adopted metric sooner if they would have been able to afford the delegation when Jefferson was President. And/or if that pirate ship hadn't captured the boat carrying the kilo proto.

I'm afraid neither of you know what a strawman argument is. I'm so confused how you both use this word. 

So you are the only one in the parade marching in step?

[KL27x]

^Group psychosis? 

[Sal Ammoniac]

The Treaty of Versailles wasn't meant to keep a boot on Germany and Japan forever. It wasn't a coronation of America as king of the free world. It was an agreement to allow peace and stability while things got back to normal, with some measure of hope that this kind of thing (WWII) wouldn't ever have to happen again.

Dude, do you even know what you're talking about? The Treaty of Versailles pertained to WWI, not WWII. It had nothing to do with Japan, which was on the Allies side during WWI.

It can be argued that the excessively punitive nature of the treaty was one of the eventual triggers of WWII.

[KL27x]

^Oh.  I meant the treaty after WWII. You figured out what I meant, though.

I'm not a history major. I dunno when we learned this in regular school, but it was a long time ago.

What was the treaty of WWII? Warsaw Pact? It looks like most people didn't know that either, or they don't read my posts before randomly calling them "strawman argument."

This was from a week ago, so I'm sure I have said plenty more for you to disagree with. I don't mind being corrected, but I hope it stays on topic for the sake of not getting the thread closed.

[Zero999]

...
There is nothing government can do that is better than what private industry can do.  Nationalizing anything is always a huge mistake!
...

Healthcare

The US has demonstrably worse Health Care than almost all other 1st world (government run) healthcare systems; as I mentioned; but you knew that already as you read my post.

Let's look at the G7; and use the two most common measures of the effectiveness of healthcare systems.

Life Expectancy (CIA World factbook 2017)
Japan 2nd
Italy 14th
Canada 17th
France 18th
Germany 34th
UK 35th
USA 57th

Infant Mortality (World Bank)
Japan 6th
Italy 10th
Germany 19th
France 22nd
UK 24th
Canada 28th
USA 32nd

and now compare that to costs

yet the US spends the most per capita on healthcare (OECD 2017)
United States — $10,209 - 1st
Germany — $5,728 - 5th
France — $4,902 - 11th
Canada — $4,826 - 12th
Japan — $4,717 - 14th
United Kingdom — $4,246 - 17th
Italy — $3,542 - 20th


Coming dead last while spending twice as much is hardly a case for "There's nothing the government can do better than private industry"

But you never ask why?  How about the fact that infant mortality for 'crack babies' is included in the stats.  How about the fact that drug abusers are also included.  Life expectancy?  Well that includes drug abusers as well.

Somewhere there needs to be a way to exclude overdoses or gang warfare from impacting the stats.  Health care isn't the reason of the 40,000 gun related deaths, 60% were suicide, 37% were murder and 3% other.  Yet these count toward mortality rate.  We have about 50,000 suicides per year but this will overlap with other stats.  Then too, 10% of our population are drug users.

We have a liberal society run amok.  Hopefully the pendulum will swing back one day.

The healthcare itself is excellent.  It's what is included in the stats that would lead anyone to think we are substandard.

Where did you get those ideas from?  It sounds like the kind of bollocks found in tabloids and crappy clickbait sites.

A quick Google reveals, the leading causes of death in the US are heart disease and cancer, not drugs, guns or suicide. No doubt a huge number of these deaths are down to the US's poor healthcare system.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm

No mention of maternal drug use was mentioned under infant mortality, so I suspect it isn't as greater factor as you think.
https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm

Healthcare in the US is only excellent, if one can afford it.

EDIT:
If a country is doing something widely regarded to be silly/wrong/incompetant then expect to be bashed for it on the Internet. I accept the UK gets bashed a lot over Brexit and rightly so.

[tooki]

Totally agree with you, Zero999.

I’ll add that poverty-related “lifestyle” issues like underinsurance, stress levels, obesity and food deserts also make a huge difference in US health outcomes. It turns out that educated, financially secure societies have better outcomes than poorly educated, financially shaky ones. (And in USA, true financial security is something enjoyed by fairly few, since there are essentially no safety nets.)

[KL27x]

^FYI, no one dies of starvation in US. Our safety nets are there. They are just not as dignified and glamorous as most other first world countries. And there is a very good reason for that.

Americans are beyond moral shame. Give them a decent option of being a parasite, and they are happy to take it and raise families this way. W/e critera one must meet to qualify for the system, that information spreads. And people take a bus across the country to get to this state/system where they have heard people are getting hooked in. This is their new goal in life, and it becomes a lifestye for many.

[boffin]

Where did you get those ideas from?  It sounds like the kind of bollocks found in tabloids and crappy clickbait sites.

A quick Google reveals, the leading causes of death in the US are heart disease and cancer, not drugs, guns or suicide. No doubt a huge number of these deaths are down to the US's poor healthcare system.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm

No mention of maternal drug use was mentioned under infant mortality, so I suspect it isn't as greater factor as you think.
https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm

Healthcare in the US is only excellent, if one can afford it.

EDIT:
If a country is doing something widely regarded to be silly/wrong/incompetant then expect to be bashed for it on the Internet. I accept the UK gets bashed a lot over Brexit and rightly so.

Don't forget that all those mass shootings didn't really occur. They're all deep-state provider actors.  At least that's what the (non-liberal) media are claiming.
:-)

[KL27x]

Mass shootings occur. But as Zero999 pointed out, this is not a significant cause of mortality. It's a cost in human life, certainly, but it doesn't even make a blip on the radar.

There are something like 35-40 active serial killers in America right now, too.

What was this thread about, again? Oh yeah. How changing road signs will be such a great investment with an amazing return. The murders will stop and the healtcare will improve. And the 1% will donate all their money to Saint Jude.

Posts like yours, Boffin, make it so obvious what the thread is really about for the majority of the international community that is partaking. If I was bsfeechannel, I would call this a strawman argument. But I know what the word means.

[KL27x]

The majority of people who live and move to America are completely fine using both imperial and metric.

The ENGLISH speaking metric-only world is probably the most pissed off. English-speaking media, is fairly well dominated by imperial units, still (and it's not just America doing it).* Especially upset, I imagine, are the citizens of countries which changed under the assumption that the entire world would use ONLY metric within 10 years. Like they were saying even in American schools in the 70's, at least.

You can see this even in the road signs the metricated countries use. It's completely stupid (IMO) to change units and not even put the new units on your sign. The red circle thingie is the same red circle sign they use in UK! At least if you drive from France to UK, the numbers are lower (and safer). 

In Australia they put little gold signs saying "KM" on the new kilometer distance markers. But.... They paid more money to go and REMOVE them after "a sufficient transition period." Why? You put them up? They are correct? They add information? Why not leave them? And Americans are stupid.

Australia did the metrication right on the heels of the huge success and improvement of decimal money. I think they might confuse the benefits of the one with the other. (Metric better. Yes. Daily life? Show me what that did for you other than give you a migraine and fits when you watch TV). America changed to decimal currency more than 200 years ago. And Americans are acutely aware of the additional benefits of changing to metric for daily life. It's... not much. And there's no point, in the majority opinion.

*The visibility of imperial in media is exaggerated due to artistic reasons. We like to argue that Manny Pacman Pacquio is "pound for pound" the best boxer in history. We use imperial units in our language. Imperial units thus pop up more frequently in English speaken media than metric units do from metric english speaking country's media. And we're sorry your governments lied to your about the 10-year thing.

If you watch American football, you hear the word "yard" every play. In basketball, Curry is hitting a "33 footer." Here, "footer" is a noun meaning a shot, but also denoting the units. I dunno how you even would do that with meters, in english. That "-er" on the end limits it. In Australia, if you ever do watch sports, is this reversed? Do soccer commentators frequently state distance of a goal in meters? Do they state long 3 pointers in basketball in meters? Because in America, if I watch soccer? I can watch an entire match without hearing the word meter. This makes me curious if Australian commentators and sports fans use the word "meter" much less frequently than ours use "feet" just due to the names. I wonder if "meter" somehow is not as "flowy" or more distracting or less immersive in some subtle way, due to linguistics of english. In American sports commentating, the units are all over the place. I mean commentators have to talk, almost nonstop. And the imperial units are maybe easy on the tongue and ears. 

[Zero999]

To be fair, boffin was joking. Don't take it too seriously.

Anyway why change the signs to kmph? It's not an SI unit. All road signs should be in m/s.

I don't see how anyone can argue changing the road signs will solve all the US's problems. It's blatantly obvious they have far more important things to worry about! Spend the money on something like healthcare or education.

[tooki]

^FYI, no one dies of starvation in US.

I didn’t say anyone died of starvation. Obesity is the opposite of starvation. (I thought this was common knowledge.)

Look up what a “food desert” is, ok?

Our safety nets are there.

Not in any meaningful sense.

They are just not as dignified and glamorous as most other first world countries. And there is a very good reason for that.

Yes, and that reason is simply because the US likes to shame the poor. Americans consider poverty a moral and character failing, rather than as the outcome of circumstance that it is, more often than not.

Americans are beyond moral shame. Give them a decent option of being a parasite, and they are happy to take it and raise families this way. W/e critera one must meet to qualify for the system, that information spreads. And people take a bus across the country to get to this state/system where they have heard people are getting hooked in. This is their new goal in life, and it becomes a lifestye for many.

An entire paragraph of mental emesis. All you did was, without using the catchphrase, to describe the mythical Welfare Queen. But other than a handful of (rightfully) noteworthy exceptions, it’s just a myth. It was never anything more than a political bogeyman used by the Republicans in the 80s and 90s (and now the 2010s), completely unsubstantiated by any kind of evidence. Welfare fraud is exceedingly rare, statistically speaking, and there’s no evidence of any widespread desire to become dependent on welfare. Remember, the social safety nets in USA SUCK. Living off it will never give you as good a quality of life as available from working. Additionally, a huge part of the people in USA who receive welfare ARE WORKING, and receive supplements because minimum wage simply isn’t enough to live ANYWHERE in USA any more, never mind with kids.

[Zero999]

Blaming the poor for their poverty goes back to the Victorian era and still goes on today.

Ideally, welfare should be an investment to get the poor into well paid jobs so they can pay all the benefits back in the form of taxes. Unfortunately there will always be a small group of people who are unable or unwilling to work, but it was always be a very tiny minority; far too small to be a real burden on the working population.

[KL27x]

Australia: You can use more than one measuring system?

Canada, Britain, China, US:  Yeah.

Australia: Why didn't I think of that?

Rest of english-speaking world: It's ok, little brother. You chose wisely. I mean, if we could have only one, we would have chosen metric, too.

...And if you learn to speak Russian, German, Japanese, or French, you have the units down, already!

[vk6zgo]

The majority of people who live and move to America are completely fine using both imperial and metric.

The ENGLISH speaking metric-only world is probably the most pissed off. English-speaking media, is fairly well dominated by imperial units, still (and it's not just America doing it).* Especially upset, I imagine, are the citizens of countries which changed under the assumption that the entire world would use ONLY metric within 10 years. Like they were saying even in American schools in the 70's, at least.

You can see this even in the road signs the metricated countries use. It's completely stupid (IMO) to change units and not even put the new units on your sign. The red circle thingie is the same red circle sign they use in UK! At least if you drive from France to UK, the numbers are lower (and safer). 

In Australia they put little gold signs saying "KM" on the new kilometer distance markers. But.... They paid more money to go and REMOVE them after "a sufficient transition period." Why? You put them up? They are correct? They add information? Why not leave them? And Americans are stupid.

You really do delight in making stuff up,don't you?
What really happened was that we took the numbers off all the mileposts, replacing those at 5 mile intervals with 8km markers.
As roads were upgraded, & in many cases, widened, the posts had to be removed.
The new posts were at 5km intervals---Australians are smart enough that they can count by fives.

Australia did the metrication right on the heels of the huge success and improvement of decimal money. I think they might confuse the benefits of the one with the other. (Metric better. Yes. Daily life? Show me what that did for you other than give you a migraine and fits when you watch TV).

Name one reason why metrication would do that?

America changed to decimal currency more than 200 years ago. And Americans are acutely aware of the additional benefits of changing to metric for daily life. It's... not much. And there's no point, in the majority opinion.

*The visibility of imperial in media is exaggerated due to artistic reasons. We like to argue that Manny Pacman Pacquio is "pound for pound" the best boxer in history. We use imperial units in our language. Imperial units thus pop up more frequently in English speaken media than metric units do from metric english speaking country's media. And we're sorry your governments lied to your about the 10-year thing.

If you watch American football, you hear the word "yard" every play.

Who the hell would want to?

In basketball, Curry is hitting a "33 footer." Here, "footer" is a noun meaning a shot, but also denoting the units. I dunno how you even would do that with meters, in english. That "-er" on the end limits it. In Australia, if you ever do watch sports, is this reversed? Do soccer commentators frequently state distance of a goal in meters?

The ground is specified in metres, but metres or feet just don't come up in commentary, any more than they do in European broadcasts of the same game.

Do they state long 3 pointers in basketball in meters?

I've never heard any great use of either feet or metres in TV commentary, pretty obviously, because you can see the play, & make your own estimation of the distance.
On the radio, it may be different, but I don't listen to basketball on the radio!

Because in America, if I watch soccer? I can watch an entire match without hearing the word meter. This makes me curious if Australian commentators and sports fans use the word "meter" much less frequently than ours use "feet" just due to the names. I wonder if "meter" somehow is not as "flowy" or more distracting or less immersive in some subtle way, due to linguistics of english. In American sports commentating, the units are all over the place. I mean commentators have to talk, almost nonstop. And the imperial units are maybe easy on the tongue and ears. 

I don't think they ever used either feet or metres that much.
It could just be that US fans of such games became used to the use of units in the days of radio broadcasts & the commentators carried it over into TV, until it became a standard way of doing things.

In Oz, most of the sporting broadcasts in the old days revolved around Cricket,  "Australian Football", & Rugby League, where there wasn't a lot of use for distances.(Except for horse racing which was the sole user of Furlongs).

In "Australian Football" (maybe better known to you in the form of AFL), if a player does something particularly reprehensible, his immediate opponent on the other team may be awarded a free kick from 50 metres closer to the goalposts his team are aiming for.
In that case, the commentator will use the dreaded "metre" word.

I don't think it used to be "50 yards", because as far as as I can remember, the rule didn't exist back in the day.

In Cricket, if the batsman hits a "boundary", it doesn't matter what the distance is measured in, that's still the equivalent of 4 "runs", & if it goes over the fence into the crowd, 6 runs!

[bsfeechannel]

We know this, but we don't CARE.

We know very well that you don't care. But we needed to cut through the road-sign bullshit and make you say it explicitly.

Now you understand why we like rstofer's replies. He doesn't try to pretend that the resistance against metrication is based on some sound logic or noble cause.

And that saves us a lot of digital ink.

[KL27x]

re:vk6zgo last post:

I read that word for word, the other day. About the gold km signs being removed. I'm sorry that was not exactly right.

I also read that Australia put up all their speedo signs covered up. And then unveiled them all within a couple weeks or so while taking the old ones down. I can't imagine that being practical in America. But maybe that was wrong, too?

It's interesting the way your sports rarely use distances. We use them a lot. Maybe this is part of the reason you guys changed so completely. And even if watching on TV, it's useful to us. Cuz "watching" sports you still listen while getting a pint out of the fridge or going on about life. TBH, if I actually sit down to really watch a game, I often mute it.

We talk about Damien Lillard's 40-foot series winner against OKC. In Paul George's face, IIRC. And Lamar Jackson's 84 rushing yard and 180 passing yards the other day. We use units all the time. And in some cases, you can appreciate just the numbers, even if you haven't seen it, yet. (Many of us degenerates essentially bet on fantasy leagues that go by "your" players' individual numbers).

I'm imagining metric would not be useful in basketball so much. How many times can you say "drains it from 1 meter beyond the arc?" Until it actually rounds up to 2 meters? In fact, you never heard or say or think a "yard" in basketball. It's like we use an appropriate unit for the context? And it's mostly for comparison to previous memories and other records, so who cares if a yard or a foot is some weird fraction of a meter?

The horse racing is one that bothers me, and I don't know why. I don't even watch horse racing, and it seems wrong to me that this archaic tradition of making animals run around a track, and which has such a long running continuous history, has changed. I totally understand if they change the way they describe it, commentate it, market it in metric. But to actually change the lengths of major races feels like a loss to me. 
 

[vk6zgo]

re:vk6zgo last post:

I read that word for word, the other day. About the gold km signs being removed. I'm sorry that was not exactly right.

They certainly didn't stick on separate "km" signs in Western Australia.
What they did do, was to stick reflective tags with plain numbers on each 5mile/8km post.
The old mile markings were black paint on white poles, which were costly ---the stickers were "cheap as dirt".
They did the same thing in South Australia.

Maybe they did something weird in one of the other States, but I very much doubt it.

I also read that Australia put up all their speedo signs covered up. And then unveiled them all within a couple weeks or so while taking the old ones down. I can't imagine that being practical in America. But maybe that was wrong, too?

It wasn't practical in Australia, either, as many of our speed signs are out in the backblocks, hundreds of km from "civilisation".
You might send a couple of blokes out there with some spanners & a bunch of speed signs & replace a bunch of the old ones, using the same posts & bolts.-----but cover them up ---Nah!

Even in the suburbs, the covers would be a magnet to "yoofs" who would delight in tearing them off.
You would have had to be living in a cave not to know Metrication day was coming, so why would the authorities care?---& they didn't.
The only time I've seen signs covered up is if roadworks are occurring, or if there is a major modification to the road layout happening.
 
If this was on the "Net", can you give me a link, so I can reproach them for misleading my friend KL27x?

It's interesting the way your sports rarely use distances. We use them a lot. Maybe this is part of the reason you guys changed so completely. And even if watching on TV, it's useful to us. Cuz "watching" sports you still listen while getting a pint out of the fridge or going on about life. TBH, if I actually sit down to really watch a game, I often mute it.

We talk about Damien Lillard's 40-foot series winner against OKC. In Paul George's face, IIRC. And Lamar Jackson's 84 rushing yard and 180 passing yards the other day. We use units all the time. And in some cases, you can appreciate just the numbers, even if you haven't seen it, yet. (Many of us degenerates essentially bet on fantasy leagues that go by "your" players' individual numbers).

I'm imagining metric would not be useful in basketball so much. How many times can you say "drains it from 1 meter beyond the arc?" Until it actually rounds up to 2 meters? In fact, you never heard or say or think a "yard" in basketball. It's like we use an appropriate unit for the context? And it's mostly for comparison to previous memories and other records, so who cares if a yard or a foot is some weird fraction of a meter?

The horse racing is one that bothers me, and I don't know why. I don't even watch horse racing, and it seems wrong to me that this archaic tradition of making animals run around a track, and which has such a long running continuous history, has changed. I totally understand if they change the way they describe it, commentate it, market it in metric. But to actually change the lengths of major races feels like a loss to me. 

They have had stranger changes in the past.
In Britain, some places, the horses run clockwise, & others anti-clockwise.
Most countries are similar, but in the USA, they all run anticlockwise.
It seems that the race tracks in Colonial america ran clockwise, & in a outburst of anti-British sentiment, it was decided to run the other direction.(A bit like the way you decided to drive your carts on the right hand side of the road, like your friends, the French).

There were several attempts to reintroduce clockwise running, but after some initial success, they ultimately petered out.

[KL27x]

They have had stranger changes in the past.
In Britain, some places, the horses run clockwise, & others anti-clockwise.
Most countries are similar, but in the USA, they all run anticlockwise.

It seems that the race tracks in Colonial america ran clockwise, & in a outburst of anti-British sentiment, it was decided to run the other direction.(A bit like the way you decided to drive your carts on the right hand side of the road, like your friends, the French).

There were several attempts to reintroduce clockwise running, but after some initial success, they ultimately petered out.

I can believe this. And it shows that sometimes there are historical factors involved in making even relatively small changes.

I wonder if Australians held some anti-British sentiment when it changed to metric overnight? I don't recall any anti-Brit feelings in US in my lifetime. It was all about the Soviet Union. Seems like Britain is USA's sidekick, by our era. Maybe if metric was making the rounds in 1776, America would have changed more completely.

[KL27x]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_cringe
Pertinent historical context?

The OP started this thread with:

whats the attraction to the use of old imperial measurement in the US?
here in Australia everything is Metric,  like most of the world.
why is the US system of measurement the odd one out?

Maybe a more interesting question is what made Australia so uniquely willing among the english-speaking world to so thoroughly sever its continuity of perception, history, and culture in order to forge ahead in a brave new world that may include things like "kilometerage." (Mileage; not officially a word, yet, per Merriam. Apparently it sounds cooler in French, where it is legit. "Kilometrage.")

We've got
1. Australian sports viewers/commentators do not have much use for communicating distances.
2. Trade partners mostly China and metric EU
3. "Cultural cringe" causing an under-valuation/appreciation of its own culture and history.
4. Timing of decimal currency change.

[bsfeechannel]

Maybe a more interesting question is what made Australia so uniquely willing among the english-speaking world to so thoroughly sever its continuity of perception, history, and culture in order to forge ahead in a brave new world that may include things like "kilometerage." (Mileage). 

Maybe because Australia realized that the English-speaking world is part of the earth. And the earth is metric.

[vk6zgo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_cringe
Pertinent historical context?

The OP started this thread with:

whats the attraction to the use of old imperial measurement in the US?
here in Australia everything is Metric,  like most of the world.
why is the US system of measurement the odd one out?

And you seem to deadset upon turning it into an "Australia Bashing" thread.

Maybe a more interesting question is what made Australia so uniquely willing among the english-speaking world to so thoroughly sever its continuity of perception, history, and culture in order to forge ahead in a brave new world that may include things like "kilometerage." (Mileage; not officially a word, yet, per Merriam. Apparently it sounds cooler in French, where it is legit. "Kilometrage.")

"Mileage"is defined in various online dictionaries as:-
(1) The distance you have travelled, measured in miles
(2)The number of miles a vehicle can tavel on one gallon of fuel.
(3) The mileage in a particular course of action is its usefulness in getting you want you want.

(1) Is covered in its definition, by the perfectly good word "travelled", & was already rare in 1974.

(2)Is the same thing as "fuel economy", which had pretty much replaced it by 1974.
( "Mileage" is a Brit/US thing!)

(3)Is a figure of speech of much the same order as "In for a penny, in for a Pound", or "Give 'em an inch & they'll take a mile".
Nobody has ever been prosecuted (or persecuted) for using Imperial measures in everyday speech, as they come under the same category as quite redundant measures like "leagues".(or to a lesser extent, fathoms)

 Do Shakespearean actors in the USA declaim whilst performing in "The Tempest":-
"Full thirty feet thy Father lies, his bones are coral made!"?

Of course not, so why do you assume Australians would be stupid enough to ban all reference to non-Metric measures?
You have somehow assumed, because we changed to Metric that we live in some sort of Totalitarian State where the Imperial measures have become "non-words".

If I wanted to, & was persuasive enough, I could organise a group of people to march down the road yelling " Inch!, Inch!, Inch!, Foot!,Foot!, Foot!, Yard!, Yard!, Yard!, Mile!, Mile!, Mile!, Furlong! Rod! Pole!, Perch!, & as long as we were well behaved, didn't hinder traffic, or get into unseemly physical confrontations with the public or police, we could go home & sleep soundly in our beds, knowing the Metrication Death squads are not coming for us!

As for "kilometrage", I had no idea it is a real thing, as I have never heard it used, either by Australians or others, but there you go, it is real:-
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/mileage-kilometrage.2580919/

We've got
1. Australian sports viewers/commentators do not have much use for communicating distances.

I might have to amend my comments on this, as around the goals in AFL, is a semicircle 50m in diameter.
Once you have passed that line, you are in your "forward 50".
Some players can kick goals from "outside" the 50 metre line, but it isn't common.
A commentator may point out that he/she is outside the "50 metre line", or if they are inside, they are "about 40m or maybe about 10metres " or whatever away from goal.
"About" is pretty much the degree of accuracy required in commentary.

2. Trade partners mostly China and metric EU

Plus the USA, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia & others.

3. "Cultural cringe" causing an under-valuation/appreciation of its own culture and history.

There always have been "Artificial Poms", " Artificial Yanks", " Eurosnobs", etc.
Unfortunately, they have an influence upon the Media, out of all proportion to their actual numbers.

Most Australians have sufficient confidence in their identity for it not to be shaken by the loss of Inches, Feet, Yards, Miles, etc, which if anything are a reminder of being dominated by the British Empire.

4. Timing of decimal currency change.

Coincidence.

[/quote]

[KL27x]

And you seem to deadset upon turning it into an "Australia Bashing" thread.

Well, the America bashing seems to be gone, now. 
You seem deadset to make my words into what you want to hear. In what way am I bashing Australia?  I'm trying to understand the context. I am curious what 1960's Australia was like. Australia IS unique among english speaking countries in its success of metrication. If trying to learn about Australian history is "bashing" to you, perhaps cultural cringe is still present in Australia?

There always have been "Artificial Poms", " Artificial Yanks", " Eurosnobs", etc.
Unfortunately, they have an influence upon the Media, out of all proportion to their actual numbers.

This is not what cultural cringe even means.

I beg you to read the wikipedia about "cultural cringe" all the way beginning to end. But this time assume that I am an ethic immigrant citizen of America. Assume I am of a race that is belittled and stereotyped by American media, daily. Assume that if I go to a 5 star restaurant in my own city with a group of only my own color, that we will stand there watching white America getting seated ahead of us for 40 minutes, even though we have a reservation. And that should we make the mistake of bearing the humiliation rather than leaving with some dignity, the servers will utilize their 5 star training to charge us $300 a head for the pleasure of enduring further not-so-subtle barbs and denigration.

Cultural cringe is not limited to media. That said, American media has been bad to just about every other country other than britain. I don't know how much you see of it, but Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin ain't half bad, compared to how we portray many other people. I think by today, Australia has been granted "full citizenship" by this point. I mean being rich and white and having a cool accent, I don't think Australia can be victimized by American Hollywood that long. Perhaps in the 60's it was different, though. 

I might have more curiosity and connection to this idea of "cultural cringe" than you. Let's say as this ethnic immigrant that being exposed to American culture and schools and media caused me to be embarrassed and to undervalue my own heritage and culture. And maybe that is also the fault of my parents, who made effort to NOT expose me to their culture and even their language; in belief this will help me to "get ahead." (When in fact this only further limits my value and opportunies). I see analogy in Australia totally erasing its old ways of measurement. So maybe you will see I am not bashing Australia when I am curious about this phenomenon in Australia in the 60s. Australia/New Zealand are the only post-metricated countries where even the old people pretty much completely switched to metric in every way of daily life.

I have a lot more feelings on this about cultural cringe and America and my ideas of slavery as it has always existed in advanced societies since centuries before Christ. And how it continues today; it's just way more sophisticated and sinister. But that is getting off topic.

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I think kilometerage is a thing because of car rentals that charge by the kilometer. Or taxis/uber. If they use the word mileage somewhere on the contract, then it might cause confusion (real or people just being cheapass, by saying they wrote "milage," so I will pay for by the miles, not the kilometers). But it's a real word in Italian and in Spanish, too.
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If I wanted to, & was persuasive enough, I could organise a group of people to march down the road yelling " Inch!, Inch!, Inch!, Foot!,Foot!, Foot!, Yard!, Yard!, Yard!, Mile!, Mile!, Mile!, Furlong! Rod! Pole!, Perch!, & as long as we were well behaved, didn't hinder traffic, or get into unseemly physical confrontations with the public or police, we could go home & sleep soundly in our beds, knowing the Metrication Death squads are not coming for us!

This is nothing to do with language, daily life, culture, sporting history/records. Cultural cringe is about destroying historical buildings, denigration of your own art and achievements, eagerness to disconnect with your own history. This is curious to me. I think metrication was more complex than Australians being smarter than UK, Canada, America. Because by IQ and education level, is not that different.

And here is the strawman that gets raised, over and over. You already told us that even in your schooling in Australia, 60 years ago, you learned inches, feet, and miles, only. But here are those rods, perches, poles, and furlongs that you bring up when it is convenient. Why not have a serious discussion? What are you afraid of?

Also, during Australia's metrication, it WAS illegal to sell a tape measure with inches on it. It was made illegal to print oz's in addition to metric on food packaging. If you were doing this, I suppose the Bureau of Metrication would confiscate and destroy these things, then levy a fine. If you think this would go over in America, you don't know America. The politician to even mention this is going to kill his career.
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In my curiosity/investigation, I discovered some other things I was not aware. During the penal-colonization of Australia, at one point Britain had 222 capital crimes. Most of which were for property crimes. We think that Saudi Arabia is crazy for cutting off your hands for stealing. At one point, stealing a rabbit was a capital crime in Britain.  In fact, any theft greater than 5 shillings was a capital offence. Symptom of a sick and dying empire? Source of cheap labor? So at least during this period of penal-colonization, one might imagine that many of the criminals did something far less odious to earn their sentence. Early on, many of them were worked and lashed to death in Australia, and laws were eventually made to limit the number of convicts to 70 per "owner" and to limit the number of lashings allowed per day.

[SilverSolder]

^We've got to be a little careful about applying modern standards to historic situations...

Consider that the Salem Witch Trials were not all that long ago...  hopefully unthinkable today!