If you live in a fairly large city and have someone you are trying to convince of the seriousness of preparing for y2k, drive them out on an interstate expressway (any interstate expressway) to the nearest rest stop on a Sunday night. You will see dozens of semi-trucks idling while their drivers await the opening of the city a few hours away. These rolling warehouses are the lifeblood of the city, providing food, fuel and other materials Just-In-Time to prevent a collapse of the infrastructure. This may prove to them that a disruption caused by an oil crisis, supplier bankruptcy, banking failure, or social turmoil could have an immediate and disastrous effect on life as we know it.

-- a (a@a.a), March 24, 1999

Answers

a, you make an excellent point, but honestly -- its practically April 1999. I think anyone who would have gotten it based on these kinds of arguments would have gotten it by now.

I think that we are down to the end of the wire on any way to meaningfully convince anyone prior to the large panic that will surely occur once John Q. Public is forced to confront Y2K due to personal experiences. And, when that happens, it will be Game Over in terms of individual preparation unless you are already pretty much ready.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), March 24, 1999.

Here's a good one: Ask a DGI what they think the population of your city is and how many grocery stores serve the community. Divide the grocery stores into the population and that's how many people each store supports. Say it's 20,000 people per store. Tell them to walk down the canned chili bean isle and ask them if they see 20,000 cans of chili, or 20,000 packages of anything! And even if they did see 20,000 cans of chili, that would only feed 20,000 people one meal! I played that scenario on someone the other day and it totally boggled their mind and it got their attention.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 24, 1999.

Craig: Thanks for the laugh, I need that!

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 24, 1999.

Barb, that IS a good one........ whew.

-- Lisa (lisa@work.say), March 24, 1999.

Remember:

1-cup of dried beans per person per day.

Got beans?

-- (Boilerman7@powerhouse.com), March 24, 1999.

Remember:

1-cup of dried beans per person per day.

Got beans?

Got Rice?

-- (Boilerman7@powerhouse.com), March 24, 1999.

a:

Good point. Remember to tell the DGI observers that if there are riots in the city, would any of these truckers dare to enter the turmoil, or would they turn around and drive to safer havens?

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), March 24, 1999.

REMeMBEr!!!!!! IDiOT JACk wADS WHo DGI, Ain'T GONNa GI!!!!! JACk IS riGHT-ON!!!!! SCreW 'EM, WOrrY ABouT#1 UNtiL THEY ASk yOU WHaT Do i NEED tO BuY!!!!! IF It iS TOo latE, It's tOo latE!!!!! IF it iS TOo LAte tHEN yoU CaN TeLL THem tO go BUy a LOttO TIckeT!!!!! GOoD LUck IDIoT!!!!!!

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), March 24, 1999.

Dieter,

I understand the frustration you and folks like Jack feel concerning trying to get DGIs to think a bit. None the less there are some of us who, for religious reasons if nothing else, do not have the option of simply ignoring the DGIs and watching them flounder later on. We have to keep tryig to warn them as long as we can.

I also have to disagree with Jack on when panic will ensue - quite frankly, barring some jarringly major catastrophe, I don't expect panic until either right before or right after the rollover...too much controlled media.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), March 25, 1999.

I recently had a talk with a DWGI and feel at least I made his wheels turn.

He comes from a large city so my description was easly understood.

With large cities, comes all kinds of people. Theres alot of crime in those cities--that can't be disputed.

Do you think if the power went out in NYC,Detroit,Chicago or Milwaukee that the thorn of the cities would sit in there houses and shiver?

What about the large group of people that didn't prepare that believed the government would handle this?

Then you have kids crying to there parents that there cold.

These cities have a million plus in people each.

I believe that big problems will start in those cities in a matter of hours of the New Year. Cold will hit there long before the need for food.

He didn't have alot to say but you saw the wheels turning.

-- maji (majiWI@yahoo.com), March 25, 1999.