U.S. manufacturing is often world-leading, but the primacy of the USA as a market and as a source of products is declining. The rise of China, with four times the people, and other vast swathes of a developing world seem undeniable and almost inevitable. And this is not necessarily a problem.
But the American media is cultivating anti-scientific prejudices. Engineering and the worldwide metric system are denounced as elitist, or foreign, and a threat to Mom & apple pie. Units used in America can confuse - twelve inches to a foot, three feet to a yard. A pound weighs sixteen ounces; eight liquid ounces to the cup. If we switch, the world won't fit... but it don't fit so good now. Pity the nuclear-armed Yankee imperialist & his overweight cannon fodder shock troops... ?
