I think it's about time for us all to look back and see exactly what Y2K has cost us. Of course, there are the intangible costs such as wasting time and effort preparing for something that never happened, but they are very hard to quantify.

Therefore, I think as a good first approximation, each of us should take a look at the monetary costs that we have incurred as a result of our concern about something that never happened and seems unlikely in retrospect ever to have happened.

So here is a little quiz that will result in a score indicating how much of a "doomer" each person was. So that the score can be interpreted properly by others, there are a couple of essay questions at the beginning.

1. What exactly was the Y2K related event you were preparing for that never occurred?

2. What did you think the likelihood of it occurring was before January 1st of this year?

3. Looking back, what you think the probability actually was?

Now for the mathematical part of the test.

4. How much money did you spend on preparing for the event that you named in No. 1 above? Call the answer "a".

5. How much could you recover if you sold all of the preparations that you still have? Call the answer "b".

6. How much income did you forego as a result of spending time and effort preparing for the event named in No. 1 above? Call the answer "c".

Now here's how to calculate your "doomer score", "d":

d = (a-b) + (0.6*c)

I'm making the assumption here that preparation expenses were not tax-deductible, and that foregone income would have been taxed at the highest federal rate of approximately 40 percent. Of course, if you live in a state with state income taxes, or if you are in a different federal tax bracket, you should adjust the calculation correspondingly.

I realize that some people on this board aren't terribly good with complex mathematical calculations. To help them out, I'll do a couple of examples so they can see how it works. I'll start with my own situation:

1. I was concerned that one or more pieces of the industrial infrastructure would fail for lengthy periods of time.

2. Approximately 10 percent.

3. Approximately one percent.

4. a = $75,000

5. b = $35,000

6. c = 0

Therefore, my "doomer score" equals 40,000.

Let's do one more for one of the board members who might not be able to do it himself:

1. Y2K hysteria caused by fear mongers and hucksters.

2. ???

3. ???

4. I'll assume 0.

5. I'll assume this is also 0, logically.

6. $200,000

According to our formula, the "doomer score" of this person is 120,000.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention whose score this was. Of course, it is CPR. I'd appreciate it if he would fill in the missing data in steps 2 through 5, so we can get a more accurate result, but it's clear that 120,000 is his minimum score. He certainly has me beat!

-- ABC (a@b.c), September 08, 2000

Answers

This is for those of you who only look at "new answers".

-- ABC (a@b.c), September 08, 2000.

You are a true asshole. My efforts to counteract the FUD and Manure Spreaders of Y2k had nothing to do with convincing people like you or anyone on this list that North was a problem. I case you don't know, I did not act alone. There were far more "De-bunkers" than you twits ever saw appear on any net forum.

I considered Gary North and the Doom Turds a direct threat to the United States of America. I openly called him a Traitor and Seditionist and defied him to sue me. I later extended that to ANYONE I NAMED. I could do that because I had the data to back myself up in any court of Law.

I have never done much in the way of "charity" or "volunteer work" most of my life because I have been somewhat interested in making money. SO I did it all in a two year span. My lost income can be recovered anytime.

Do I have any regrets. YES. I regret I did not open a web site and EXPOSE ALL THE FUD MAKERS IN ONE PLACE SOONER.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 08, 2000.

Creep, for you to call someone else an asshole is hysterically ludicrous. YOU are THE biggest asshole that ever walked this planet. Gary North is free to say whatever he wants to say, and every person is free to believe what we want to believe. No one asked you to make libelous statements about Gary North. No one asked you to try to change our minds about what WE chose to believe. You did it all for yourself, because you are quite simply, nothing more than a GIANT ASSHOLE who gets off on hearing himself rant. Don't try to pretend that you are some kind of hero, you are a nothing but a worthless dipshit egomaniac.

-- (go@home.creep), September 08, 2000.

"..you are a nothing but a worthless dipshit egomaniac."

-- (pot@kettle.black), September 08, 2000.

In case anyone is even more confused than usual after reading one of CPR's posts, the answer can be found on this thread:

"Pre-, post-Y2K attitudes are basis of doctoral dissertation" http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl? msg_id=003mG1

In other words, CPR, who rose mightily against Gary North and all the other "***DOOMZIE MIS-LEADERS***" who advocated that everyone quit their jobs in anticipation of the world coming to an end -- WHICH HARDLY ANYONE ACTUALLY DID -- quit HIS $200K per year job, all for the Y2K Pollyanna Cause.

Let's think about this for a moment. Say you were worried about Y2K. You buy a month's supply of food in advance -- CPR says you are an idiot. You store bottled water -- CPR says you are under the control of an "infectious doomer meme". You decide to put, say, 10% of your portfolio into precious metals like gold and silver -- CPR goes ballistic.

BUT ... CPR ... QUIT HIS $200K PER YEAR JOB ... BECAUSE HE WAS WORRIED ... ABOUT YOU WOULD DO ... ABOUT Y2K.

CPR has been doing his idiotic "de-bunking" nonsense for 2 YEARS. In other words, he has LOST $400K due to his dedication to Y2K worries.

But it is even worse that this. Hard to believe, but it is. CPR's looney posts CONVINCED NOBODY. At best, they have always been LAUGHABLE because they are barely INTELLIGIBLE. If anything, they probably would convince someone that POLLIES ARE CRACKPOTS, and therefore make one even MORE LIKELY to prepare for Y2K, and put money in the pockets of the very people that CPR went to "war" against.

Gawd! I mean, this is truly a revelation. It is both hysterically funny, yet at the same time, pathetically sad. I, truly, am overwhelmed with the absolute magnitude of it all.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), September 08, 2000.

Scary Gary stopped talking about y2k a long time ago yet cpr is still at it. Looks like cpr wins the prize for being the "TRUE asshole".

-- irony (moveOn@getalife.com), September 09, 2000.

Revelation indeed KOS. The internet, the first amendment and paranoia. Bad combo for the insecure.

Say, Hoplight Tapia = FM maybe?

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), September 09, 2000.

Gary North is still serving up plates full of FUD though. Don't tell me that you guys are still believing him.

-- Mama Bush (texas@bad.place), September 09, 2000.

Ya know, that is an excellent point.

I spent maybe a grand, maybe two tops on Y2K stuff, mostly stuff that I have already or will soon use. I bought one thing that I probably would not have bought if I hadn't been concerned about Y2K, a small generator that my buddy in the business gave me an outstanding deal on. So my best guess is that I "blew" a total of about $650, even though I still have the genny, and have used it twice during power failures.

CPR "blew" $400k, yet somehow we doomers are the morons.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), September 09, 2000.

WHAT MORONS. I never "quit a job". I"VE WORKED FOR MYSELF FOR OVER 20 YEARS.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 09, 2000.

KoS - Well Said!!!

-- Creep Detector (CDet@CPR.is.an.idiot), September 09, 2000.

Yes, of course, CPR, we know you work for yourself. Who would want you to work for them? However, that doesn't change the fact that you gave up $200,000 in income because of your UNFOUNDED CONCERNS ABOUT Y2K HYSTERIA. That makes you the biggest "doomer" of all.

-- ABC (a@b.c), September 09, 2000.

These were cpr's exact words...

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000q7k

I hardly need you to tell me about code.

Sunday, 11-Apr-1999 22:56:27

151.164.37.139 writes:

DON"T EVER "LECTURE" ME FLINT.

DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. I take no money and do no business in Y2k. It cost me about $200,000 for the last 2 years in lost income to do what I do: EXPOSE EXTREMISTS USING Y2k FEAR. For over a year I warned de Jager and others what North and Yourdon were up to. Now you had best believe many more know I was right. Gary does what he does for his "Church State" and EY does it for the "money". Now, there is enough data to suggest that he is also a believer in a "disaster theory" predicting his "ten year depression". . . .

-- (quot@bly.quoted), September 09, 2000.

They are again discussing the "white busses" at EZ. Amazing

-- 1 (2@3.4), September 09, 2000.

Need a laugh?!!

More feelings of DREAD

More martial law signs and white busses

Average IQ at EZ-board touted at 140, notice how the IQ numbers increasing as you get to the bottom of the thread LOL

-- 1 (2@3.4), September 09, 2000.

1-2-3-4: Hey, dude, you wouldn't be trying the old change-the- subject trick on us, would you now?...

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), September 09, 2000.

NO

And that's dudette to you, asshole.

-- 1 (2@3.4), September 09, 2000.

Wow! Do you like to mudwrestle?

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), September 09, 2000.

Men are so easily manipulated [major eye roll]

-- 1 (2@3.4), September 09, 2000.

WARNING! WARNING! CHARLIE'S TRYIN' TO CIPHER AGAIN! (Four million more brain cells burnt off.)

-- Stop him, Mommy (He@skeers.me), September 10, 2000.