Housing is expensive because of supply and demand, not because of a lack of new construction. Indeed, there's far TOO much new construction around here, and I live in one of the more expensive counties in the nation. Every little scrap of open land is developed. You even SAID it yourself "it's expensive because everyone wants to live there". You just needed to stop right then and there, because the next step you took was illogical and wrong. These so-called 'housing megacorps' are hurting right now because people aren't ordering nearly as many NEW houses these days.
As for your interest rate argument, welcome to 1978! Twenty percent? What? My mortgage is under six percent, and I believe that current rates are only slightly higher, although I haven't checked in a while.
And besides, 'inflation' isn't some phenomenon that makes prices get higher. Inflation is just what we call it when they do so....
If this were to happen, any funds you had in penny form would immediately grow by a HUGE percentage... And it couldn't really be tracked by anyone, so the tax liability wouldn't exactly be an issue.
So is it time to begin acquiring rolls of pennies? I've got space in the basement...
Well, in any case it would still be an issue for older construction. Of course, there are ALWAYS issues with older construction! Hell, in my last house (which was a roughly a century old when I bought it) the lumber was true-dimensional. That sounds great, but when I tried to install a ceiling fan I found that the adapter I had bought would literally not fit in between the ceiling joists. I had to cut down the screw on the thing in order to install it.
Just for the record: The thing was designed to be pushed up through a hole in the ceiling, and then unscrewed to length as it pressed against and gripped the joists. With less space between the joists, there just wasn't enough room to maneuver the thing into place without cutting it down by an inch or so. (Yes, inch. It still feels more natural than saying '2 or 3 centimeters')
Heh. I often use software development as an analogy for legislation myself.
My take is that laws are much like code... And legislators are, for the most part, very junior programmers indeed. There's no real beta test period for most laws, and unintended consequence are rife throughout the system when interpreted by the VM of our court system.
If industry and design think that doing things in metric makes more sense...
They are entirely free to do so. There is no law preventing them from using the system, except economic ones You know, the ones like 'I'm sorry, boss, but we have to eat the cost of our inventory in 1/4"x20 machine screws'.
If and when it makes business sense to convert, they will do so. The business of America is business, not forcing people to conform to standards.*
*Except for sexual, religous, political or substance-use standards.
Honestly, science doesn't enter into this discussion. Science, in the US as well as elsewhere, is done in SI units.
The question for the majority of people is really "Why don't those maddening American change their street signs", and the answer is really "There's no compelling reason which would override the economic impacts".
The old American paper system makes a bit of sense, too.
From my 1946 edition of 'Machinery's Handbook':
'The use of the basic sheet size 8-1/2 x 11 inches and its multiples permits filing of small tracings and folded blueprints in commercial standard letter files with or without correspondence. These sheet sizes also cut without unnecessary waste from the present 36 inch rolls of paper and cloth.'
A - 8-1/2 x 11 B - 11 x 17 C - 17 x 22 D - 22 x 34 E - 34 x 44
Honestly, except that the pages are not quite on the 'magic ratio', it's an awfully similar system. One 'E' sheet can be cut into two 'D' sheets, just as one sheet of 'A3' can be cut into two sheets of 'A4'. Admittedly, we don't have any paper with a '420' measurement, so that's a definite plus for ISO.
Except that the 16" spacing is really rather arbitary, it could have been 12 or 18 or 24. 16 is a safe number, and provides reasonably sound engineering when building a wall from 1.5" x 3.5" pieces of lumber. If we were to convert new construction en-masse, there's no guarantee that the American construction industry would settle on a centimeter spacing which would allow that thing to be hung directly on studs, is there?
Except we did learn metric in school in the US back in the '70s. THey didn't teach it WELL, but they taught it.
I'm comfortable enough with metric measurements that they don't give me any grief. On the other hand, I'm also quite comfortable with Imperial measurements. I can work with either, and I can work with both simultaneously, although I'd rather not need to do so.
That being said, there's little advantage from conversion in most peoples' day to day lives. If I'm doing science I should use SI measurements of course, but if I'm doing construction the binary nature of sub-inch Imperial measurements actually makes a lot of sense. It's easier to split an inch into eight or 16 equal parts than it is a centimeter When I get down to cutting metal for a bracket, I'll use 'The machinists inch', which is nothing more than an inch dividedup into thousandths (or if needed, ten-thousandths).
I'm speaking of the thread pitch, not the diameter of the screw. In english measurements it's done in 'threads per inch', which is quite easy to measure. In metric measurements the standard is to measure the pitch from identical parts of two adjacent threads (peak-to-peak for instance). It's more annoying that way, although measuring isn't bad with simple gauges. It's simply not true that every single 'M10' screw has the same thread pitch, either. There are fine standards, coarse standards, pipe standards, etc.
Hex keys I won't argue about, we have too many sizes.
As for calipers or other measuring tools... 32s of an inch or whatever are useful when woodworking perhaps, but in metal, we work in thousandths or ten-thousandths of an inch. Calipers can either be digital (just look at the number), dial (just look at the number), or vernier (more of a pain, but very accurate nonetheless). Micrometers are often vernier based, but even the non-vernier ones can distinguish thousands easily. My one inch ten-thousandths-reading vernier micrometer (theoretically, if I'm on my game) allows me to distinguish between.0003 and.0004 inches, which correspond to 0.00762 and 0.01016 mm. So right there we are see a big difference between what can realistically be done and your '.1 mm' number.
That being said, it takes a certain 'touch' to accurately measure things to that level of precision... And I'm no pro! But I can certainly, and with ease, measure things to well under 1/256 of an inch. I generally work to thousandths, which is roughly four times the precision of which you speak.
Slashdot Mirror
What ARE you talking about?
Housing is expensive because of supply and demand, not because of a lack of new construction. Indeed, there's far TOO much new construction around here, and I live in one of the more expensive counties in the nation. Every little scrap of open land is developed. You even SAID it yourself "it's expensive because everyone wants to live there". You just needed to stop right then and there, because the next step you took was illogical and wrong. These so-called 'housing megacorps' are hurting right now because people aren't ordering nearly as many NEW houses these days.
As for your interest rate argument, welcome to 1978! Twenty percent? What? My mortgage is under six percent, and I believe that current rates are only slightly higher, although I haven't checked in a while.
And besides, 'inflation' isn't some phenomenon that makes prices get higher. Inflation is just what we call it when they do so....
It's GOVERNMENT, duh!
If this were to happen, any funds you had in penny form would immediately grow by a HUGE percentage... And it couldn't really be tracked by anyone, so the tax liability wouldn't exactly be an issue.
So is it time to begin acquiring rolls of pennies? I've got space in the basement...
I'll be magnanimous. Myasia is Eurasia, and I can only hope that Eurasia is Myasia.
Absolutely correct: We and our Eurasian allies have always been at war against Eastasia.
Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
3 : A particularly brilliant /. contributor
So you also have trouble spelling 'black'? :-D
I think I need more coffee.
A pot of coffee. No nancy-boy additions, no milk, no sugar, no nothin' but strong back coffee ground fresh in my kitchen this morning.
On weekdays I'll have a danish, too. On weekends, I'll make at least one real breakfast centered around pancakes or waffles.
I have to remember to read it later.
Well, in any case it would still be an issue for older construction. Of course, there are ALWAYS issues with older construction! Hell, in my last house (which was a roughly a century old when I bought it) the lumber was true-dimensional. That sounds great, but when I tried to install a ceiling fan I found that the adapter I had bought would literally not fit in between the ceiling joists. I had to cut down the screw on the thing in order to install it.
Just for the record: The thing was designed to be pushed up through a hole in the ceiling, and then unscrewed to length as it pressed against and gripped the joists. With less space between the joists, there just wasn't enough room to maneuver the thing into place without cutting it down by an inch or so. (Yes, inch. It still feels more natural than saying '2 or 3 centimeters')
Let's be truly honest here: Most folks will say something like...
"It's about from that window to oh, maybe halfway to that wall over there."
Law of internet message boardery #3867:
When accusing others of being ignorant or lacking in intelligence, it is best to ensure that you use correct grammar and spelling.
Hmmm. How about 'Simpsons individual stringettes. Absorb water today!'
Maybe you accidentally used the big 25.4 mm?
It's irritating to you?
;-)
Reason enough for us not to switch.
Heh. I often use software development as an analogy for legislation myself.
My take is that laws are much like code... And legislators are, for the most part, very junior programmers indeed. There's no real beta test period for most laws, and unintended consequence are rife throughout the system when interpreted by the VM of our court system.
If industry and design think that doing things in metric makes more sense...
They are entirely free to do so. There is no law preventing them from using the system, except economic ones You know, the ones like 'I'm sorry, boss, but we have to eat the cost of our inventory in 1/4"x20 machine screws'.
If and when it makes business sense to convert, they will do so. The business of America is business, not forcing people to conform to standards.*
*Except for sexual, religous, political or substance-use standards.
Honestly, science doesn't enter into this discussion. Science, in the US as well as elsewhere, is done in SI units.
The question for the majority of people is really "Why don't those maddening American change their street signs", and the answer is really "There's no compelling reason which would override the economic impacts".
The old American paper system makes a bit of sense, too.
From my 1946 edition of 'Machinery's Handbook':
'The use of the basic sheet size 8-1/2 x 11 inches and its multiples permits filing of small tracings and folded blueprints in commercial standard letter files with or without correspondence. These sheet sizes also cut without unnecessary waste from the present 36 inch rolls of paper and cloth.'
A - 8-1/2 x 11
B - 11 x 17
C - 17 x 22
D - 22 x 34
E - 34 x 44
Honestly, except that the pages are not quite on the 'magic ratio', it's an awfully similar system. One 'E' sheet can be cut into two 'D' sheets, just as one sheet of 'A3' can be cut into two sheets of 'A4'. Admittedly, we don't have any paper with a '420' measurement, so that's a definite plus for ISO.
Except that the 16" spacing is really rather arbitary, it could have been 12 or 18 or 24. 16 is a safe number, and provides reasonably sound engineering when building a wall from 1.5" x 3.5" pieces of lumber. If we were to convert new construction en-masse, there's no guarantee that the American construction industry would settle on a centimeter spacing which would allow that thing to be hung directly on studs, is there?
Except we did learn metric in school in the US back in the '70s. THey didn't teach it WELL, but they taught it.
I'm comfortable enough with metric measurements that they don't give me any grief. On the other hand, I'm also quite comfortable with Imperial measurements. I can work with either, and I can work with both simultaneously, although I'd rather not need to do so.
That being said, there's little advantage from conversion in most peoples' day to day lives. If I'm doing science I should use SI measurements of course, but if I'm doing construction the binary nature of sub-inch Imperial measurements actually makes a lot of sense. It's easier to split an inch into eight or 16 equal parts than it is a centimeter When I get down to cutting metal for a bracket, I'll use 'The machinists inch', which is nothing more than an inch dividedup into thousandths (or if needed, ten-thousandths).
'specially after the first seven or eight halves...
But it sounds so much more impressive in centimeters!
"I'm packin' 18, baby!"
I'm speaking of the thread pitch, not the diameter of the screw. In english measurements it's done in 'threads per inch', which is quite easy to measure. In metric measurements the standard is to measure the pitch from identical parts of two adjacent threads (peak-to-peak for instance). It's more annoying that way, although measuring isn't bad with simple gauges. It's simply not true that every single 'M10' screw has the same thread pitch, either. There are fine standards, coarse standards, pipe standards, etc.
.0003 and .0004 inches, which correspond to 0.00762 and 0.01016 mm. So right there we are see a big difference between what can realistically be done and your '.1 mm' number.
Hex keys I won't argue about, we have too many sizes.
As for calipers or other measuring tools... 32s of an inch or whatever are useful when woodworking perhaps, but in metal, we work in thousandths or ten-thousandths of an inch. Calipers can either be digital (just look at the number), dial (just look at the number), or vernier (more of a pain, but very accurate nonetheless). Micrometers are often vernier based, but even the non-vernier ones can distinguish thousands easily. My one inch ten-thousandths-reading vernier micrometer (theoretically, if I'm on my game) allows me to distinguish between
That being said, it takes a certain 'touch' to accurately measure things to that level of precision... And I'm no pro! But I can certainly, and with ease, measure things to well under 1/256 of an inch. I generally work to thousandths, which is roughly four times the precision of which you speak.
Here's a bit on reading micrometers:
http://www.pgiinc.com/howtoreoumi.html