....if things take a serious downturn? Notice the use of the word hoarding. This spins so fast you could retch.

Ready for Y2K

The decision appears to have been made, and it is that a society ingenious enough to create the computer is capable of avoiding disaster because of a few ominous zeroes.

You can tell that the decision has been made by the way people act. Consumers are spending, investors investing, and corporations completing plans for even bigger sales and revenue in 2000.

In short, as Y2K approaches, the vague but intense concerns of earlier this year, such as the fear of economic collapse, seem to have dissolved into mere concern about disruptions and irritations.

As most now understand, if only superficially, Y2K involves the ability of computers to realize we are passing from 1999 to the year 2000, not to 1900.

Maybe no decision was involved at all, just a growing sense of reassurance that the $50 billion spent by businesses and the $8.34 billion by government was enough to fix the tiny but massive defect.

True, airline reservations for New Year's week are said to be down, some families are hoarding food and water, and banks are ready for cash withdrawals, but fears of cascading disruptions are fading.

Still, opportunists will exploit the days before year's end with terror tales and rumors, and amulets, tokens, souvenirs, insurance policies and final testaments. Entrepreneurship will be alive and well.

Most likely there'll be some disruptions, even serious, but more localized rather than regional, and very unlikely on a national scale. That is, speaking domestically.

Overseas, it may be a different matter, and since we now have a global economy (oil from the Mideast, for example), certain foreign breakdowns could spread beyond national boundaries.

Still, reassurance comes from government and business: The Senate's Y2K panel, the Federal Reserve Board, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Pentagon, and telecommunications and financial industries, among others.

Of course, the major question involved in all such reports of Y2K readiness is to what degree these reports reflect the true situation or are designed to quell public doubts while final preparations continue.

For example, in an Oct. 15 letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rossotti expresses confidence his agency will be ready. But he conceded, ''We do have some trouble spots in our effort.''

But regardless of surveys and assurances, Americans may be placing more faith in their economy than in anything else.

Their faith is in companies that produced the Internet Age and that seemingly can overcome any obstacle; in the strength of their incomes and ability to spend; and in an economic advance that has trampled for most of a decade the negative expectations of self-styled experts.

That in a sense is like saying, we've faced more threatening situations and come through, so why shouldn't we just overwhelm the enemy again.

-Associated Press http://www.cdapress.com/business/business02.html

-- Wonderinghow (Theysleep@night.com), November 08, 1999

Answers

What does a decision have to do with technological viability, pray tell?

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), November 08, 1999.

To quote a former moderator: "Nuff said."

Amused Regards,
Andy Ray

-- Andy Ray (andyman633@hotmail.com), November 08, 1999.