NationStates Jolt Archive

The Federation of the Candor would like to encourage all friendly delegate states in the WA to vote for this bill to standardize units used across many borders. We believe:

1. A standard system of measures eliminates redundancy.

2. It is good for business if sellers do not have to create 12 different models of the same product to sell in 12 different nations only to meet different standards for voltage or street width or length in yards as opposed to meters.

3. It is good for travelers in foreign lands if they do not have to learn the conversion tables whenever they enter a new place.

This bill offers a simple way to facilitate trade, tourism, transportation, and communication without impinging upon anyone's long-term interests. The transition to the new standard may create short-term difficulties, but the effort is in all states' long-term interests.

Would you be so kind as to post your proposal here?

Bob Flibble
WA Representative

It's considered polite to post the text of your proposal.
Standardized Weights and Units
A resolution to reduce barriers to free trade and commerce.

Category: Free Trade
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Rythonia

Description: Proposal to standardize Weights and measures used between nations.
Start committees of industry experts to achieve greater standardization in industries that cross borders. This would make trade much easier between nations. This would get rid of all other units of measure between World assembly nations. Setting up one standard would help trade Significantly

For example, it greatly reduces the speed of travel if passengers have to change trains every time they cross a border because different nations use railroad tracks with different gauges. Likewise, differing standards on electric outlets force international travelers to buy converters when they leave their own countries. A technician may have to own multiple sets of tools to work on different products that use metric or English sizing. It causes inefficiency and redundancy that could easily be eliminated if common standards were adopted.
While your end goal may be laudable, this proposal doesn't begin to get you there. Your proposal is essentially empty rhetoric except for the line "Start committees".

Since it is in violation of the "Committees" and "Empty Rhetoric" sections of the WA rules, we'll probably take it down as illegal. It's also effectively a category and strength violation, as you've not described much of anything that frees trade, and certainly not in any significant way.

See if you can get some help revising this into a proposal that actually does something. With a lot of work, this might actually be something that would pass.