Every day we see posts that tell us a story of yet another failure or the potential of failure. We read senate reports that tell us in essence.."Don't Worry" We read information from the government that tells us "No Problem"..then a week later "Well a small problem" A company guarantees us there will be n oproblems from them yet they have not finished all their compliance work...not to mention testing!I read the threads and see links taking me to site after site reassuring me there truely are problems. We see questions like "How long will the electric be off?" , "What is your guess about how many companys will fail?", "Will people die?" How can anybody be expected to know these answers...to me they are worthless postings ! How do I know if your house is going to burn down ?...buy insurance ! How do I know if you will be in a wreck?...buy insurance ! How do I know about your electric company?...buy reassurance in the form of a generator (Insurance) to run the critical items such as water pumps ect. I feel that we would be better off to help people become prepared instead of just posting links that tell us for the thousandth time we are in for some problems. Now please understand there is many good threads that help us with our preparations but we could use alot more. I have read all I need to know about the problems...now I want to work on solutions! I know we are going to have failures...I want to have a game plan to assist me with the handling of these failures as they relate to my family and my survival. I am sorry for my BAA...BAA...post but it was my way of showing frustration for the lack of people believing in Themselfs instead of others. People....you don't need a damn person to tell you to prepare...if you feel the need to then just do it ! You don't need anybodys permission to stockpile food, water, ammo and other items! If you choose to stockpile items...that is your business ! Don't accept or tolerate the mentality that your stockpiling will cause harm to others because the preachers of that theory are probably the same ones that got us in this mess. Want to take your money from the bank...then go do it. If it creates problems ....well that is the bank or the government's problem...afterall they greatly contributed to the y2k problem in the first place!I know we are cautioned to worry about the effects of our actions possibly causing a panic but feel the people preaching this don't care about you or your family...why should you care about them? I guess the internet has "Hardened" my tone but get sick of the crying about the problem...it is a problem..now work on the solution that will gey you and your loved ones through it! It is my belief that almost everybody out there is stockpiling items...even the DGI's as they are not 100% sure that it won't happen. You can bet the farm your local, state and federal officials are preparing for the nonevent...why can't you ! BTW...I realize my postings are causing more problems than they are worth so this will be the last! I don't want to cause problems on this site as I feel it has done a excellent job informing us of the problem and I don't want to start a war that would be harmful to the participants of this site. Thanks for all your help and GOOD LUCK ! Bill, y2kBill@hotmail.com

-- THE TIME (HAS COME@run.com), March 04, 1999

Answers

You know what I think is funny?

It is how everyone on the forum calls the majority of America (especially the so called "DGI's") the "herd". As in, a herd of dairy cattle or something.

But never, NEVER would you people ever consider yourselves a part of that herd. As if your all better than the average person somehow. Like the country is full of totally mindless people and only the intellectual elite have found their way to this silly forum.

Well Bill, your more than welcome to stockpile or prepare or whatever your going to do. I do however think you need to lighten up just a little bit and realize that sometimes good news is not just political spin and that sometimes, not always, but sometimes the glass is indeed half FULL. You need to stop playing the blame game and saying how stupid everyone was to create such a big mess for you. Okay, people screwed up and made some mistakes...

It's not the end of the world!!

-- (anon@ a1b2c3.com), March 04, 1999.

Bill, I agree with you. If you see a problem.. take care of it, and quit bellyaching about it. It seems that those under the age 60 have a real hard time making decisions and also visualizing the future. If they are using the news media for their information, they are not giving themselves the opportunity of making any sound decisions. If they use the TV report of the Senators Dodd and Bennett, then "all is well in the nation". But if they will read the actual Senate report, they will have no doubts of what to do. It is my firm belief that when the Senate went behind closed doors Tuesday, it was but a vote as to whether they should go on TV and tell it like it really is or put a spin on it. They chose the spin. In 15 minutes they could not have possibly discussed the matters which they claimed to have discussed. If only one Senator would come forth and tell the truth, the back of the spin would be broken. Its a sad state of affairs when not even one will have the guts and the integrity to do that. Y2K doesn't bother me. We have lived in the wilds of Alaska, with generators, stored food, etc. Its the people's reaction to having been led to the cliff and pushed off, that scares me.

Got ammo?

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), March 04, 1999.

Bill: You know as much as we do. Everyone on here shares their own experiences, some dig deep into the internet to pull out gems of wisdom and information that helps us to decide what to prepare for accordingly. No one really knows to what extent or how bad Y2K may affect us. I wish I could tell you that nothing is going to happen, but that would be foolish. I wish I didn't have to tell you in my estimation and based on what I have learned that I think it's going to be a BIG problem. Company's and the government don't want to be accused of being negligent, so they say "no problem, we're working on it, we're testing, blah, blah." Well that doesn't tell me anything. I want to hear "it's fixed, we're ready, we will put it in writing, we guarantee it." I'm not hearing that at all. For instance, I visited my water department yesterday and they claimed they were 100% ready. I asked them if they would put that in writing, and they said well we can't do that. I asked why not, if you're ready you should be willing to stand behind what you say." So, I'm putting away water because I don't trust them. I asked about the pumping station because our water is pumped over a hill. No problem! We just installed a diesel generator. (We'll if they were confident about being Y2K compliant, why the generator? Oh, just in case, well that's being smart). So I asked, well, how long can the generator run until it conks out? Five days. Well five days is better than nothing, and then what? I'm expect the power to be out longer than 5 days. Our power company has been responsible and told people that they are not guanrateeing the power will be on, to expect brown outs and to prepare accordingly. We've already heard that 85% of all hospitals are not ready and will not be ready. Doesn't that scare you? It's scaring the poop out of a lot of people. What about pharmacuetical companies? No medication, no hospitals means death. So, people will die, but people die everyday, they'll just be more bodies to deal with. Well, I have babbled on too but don't leave this forum because you think you have caused problems, I mean Y2K is a problem and it's going to affect everyone. I stay here because I'm still learning and it's the only place on the internet where I get good information, knowledge, and wisdom from the posters here.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 04, 1999.

it really is one big PR spin: just read the plain facts in the senate report! And I mean not the interpretation: just the figures! Someone who thinks it will just be bump in the road problably has een IQ of a rodent.

-- digintoit (getit@samsclub.com), March 04, 1999.

One more time. Some road. Some bump.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 04, 1999.

The use of the term "herd" to describe the general US population is pretty apropos even though the average individual is more intelligent than that. "We" as a collective tend to be followers when in groups, and that usually involves some degree of "dumbing down" to the lowest commmon denominator. So, all things considered, "the herd" is a retty accurate description...

OddOne, who doesn't do a good sheep or cow impression...

-- OddOne (mocklamer@geocities.com), March 04, 1999.

Couple of quotes for the Curmudgeon Hall of Fame:

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it." -Tommy Lee Jones, "Men In Black"

"There's no underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

- H.L. Mencken

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), March 04, 1999.

I believe H. L. Mencken said no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the Boobus Americanus. Anyway, I like that version better.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), March 04, 1999.