UNITS OF MEASURE

Science is critically dependent upon quantitative measurement. Therefore, the units of measure in science have been carefully selected and are closely guarded. It would be unthinkable for the size of a gram, the length of a meter, or the amount of energy in a kilowatt hour to be changed continuously at the whim of individuals or agencies.

The American Founding Fathers knew that commerce, too, depends upon stable units of measure. For this reason, they included the rule that, "No state shall ........make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts,'' Article I, Section 10, United States Constitution. Gold is especially useful, since it is so difficult to obtain. Even with modern technology, the world supply of gold cannot be inflated at an appreciable rate by current production.

Figure 2 is from The Moneychanger 14, No. 12, March, p1 (1996), available from P. O. Box 341753, Memphis, TN 38184-1753. It provides a graph of the Dow Jones Industrial average in United States gold dollars between 1916 and 1995. Conversion of other economic graphs into gold units also improves their information content.

Even the claimed government goal of making wholesale and retail prices constant is unfair to savers and technologists. This objective assumes that all technological improvements that reduce the costs of production and thereby reduce the prices of goods should automatically be confiscated by the state. The actual fall in real prices does not reach the citizens whose savings and inventions made it possible.

Continuously changing the size of measuring units would be damaging to science. Playing with the monetary unit has been counterproductive for all Americans - especially those whose work, if more easily observable, would be gratefully celebrated by their peers.