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The USA was scheduled to change over in the 1980s, but President Reagan ordered it stopped.
Actually he did NOT order it stopped, in 1982 he disbanded the US Metric Board because they were not doing much, and established the Metric Program Office under the Department of Commerce, which is still in operation under the name "Laws and Metric Group," it was renamed a few years ago.
I love it when people get all hot and bothered about which system should be used in the US. Go ahead and use whatever you want, there isn't anything that says a group, company, or individual can't use the metric system if they want to.
Many people, including myself, would never get used to it (or should have to).
You would, its nothing special. When Coke and Pepsi switched to metric, almost no one even noticed. Metric is a much better system anyway, since its very easy to convert different units of measurement in metric as compared to the imperial system.
Why should we adjust our existing system of currency to better accomodate foreign visitors and a small minority of people who are blind in this country?
I don't understand the logic in making things harder for a lot of people to make things easier for a few.
Most people who have had any form of education in the past 20 years have at least a decent understanding of the metric system and can switch between the two relatively easily, at least for the most common units of measurement. It would be a waste of money to deal with all the changes that would be necessary in my opinion.
I am grateful President Reagan stopped it. Why have something the majority of Americans don't want?
That's a silly argument. There are probably lots of countries where the people "didn't want" to convert to the metric system simply because of the human species' natural resistance to change. But every other country did it, and is better for it. I've been to about 9 countries, and nowhere else I've been is as resistant to change (not only in what people "want", but in the government actually implementing it) than the United States.
When I visit (from Toronto), your paper money drives me crazy. The entire rest of the world color-codes or size-codes or both, and you guys do neither and I never know if I'm pulling out a $1 or $100 without squinting :-) But I guess in my case it is far more likely to be the smaller one.
We coined our $1 and $2 denominations a few years ago, and I think a $5 coin is in the works.
I was in New Zealand last year, and they were smart enough to eliminate not only their one cent coin, but also their five cent coin, which makes sense to me, especially if you have coined your $1 and $2, because your pocket gets pretty heavy :-) But hey it's quite a thrill to reach in and pull out a bunch of coins that can reach $20 or $30!
I find it curious that paper money is in 1, 5, 10, 20 denominations, but coins are in 1, 5, 10, 25 ... lack of symmetry always bugged me.
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