(FORTUNE Magazine) – With uncharacteristically antijingoist bravado, the U.S. government issued a report in 1971 called A Metric America: A Decision Whose Time Has Come. It denounced our English system, proclaiming that America would become a country of metric users by 1981.

Talk about bad calls. Nearly 20 years later most adults are hard-pressed to compute the number of centimeters in an inch (answer: 2.54). Why aren't we--for once--following the lead of the French, buying petrol in liters and Camembert in kilograms?

Metric boosters insist that the switch is happening, but in stealthy ways. More than 2,000 American businesses use the metric system in research, development, and marketing, according to the U.S. Metric Association, a California advocacy group. All of Eastman Kodak's product development is done in the metric system; Procter & Gamble's Scope mouthwash is sold in incremental liter bottles. The reason is financial. Making deals in pounds isn't easy when you're negotiating with someone who speaks in grams. "Any company that wants to market overseas jolly well better be metric," says Gerard Iannelli, director of the Metric Program, the government group spearheading the change.

Despite Iannelli's enthusiasm, conversion isn't imminent. The government hasn't invested in a major educational campaign; school programs teach the system but don't provide a thorough immersion; and most businesses aren't interested in educating their employees. Perhaps we're just too closed-minded and proud to adopt a system created by the French.

--Reed Tucker