We are complete opposite... I fully expect the lights to be on Jan 1 for most areas with just rolling blackouts here and there. You need to understand this "pipeline" better that you are underestimating.
Jeff, we are not "complete opposite" and I do understand the pipeline. We are talking about two different things.
I was referring to the general panic that could occur in the population (the majority) that has not been paying much attention to this. Their understanding about Y2K is that there's a computer "bug" that will cause computers not to work right on January 1, which means to them that their bank card may not work, their pay check may be late, their lights might go off. If the doomers continue to press their case between now and then, this uninformed majority of the population could panic and rush at the last minute to get some cash, batteries, bottled water, etc., thus sending us all into a very bad situation. This particular panic effect I'm talking about is over and above any ill effects from Y2K itself. This particular problem would go away on January 1 should the lights not go out.
I've talked about that particular problem before. It is a problem, if it occurs, that would be caused not by Y2K but ironically by the doomers, themselves. It is a problem that is avoidable and within the power of people like us to avoid, unlike the real Y2K problems, which are in the hands of the engineers and the administrators. Whether you or I think that Y2K will be a disaster, a bump in the road, or a big yawn, mass panic by the oblivious majority would make it worse. If it's a disaster, we're all doomed anyway so maybe the added problem of a doomer-induced panic won't matter much. But if it's inherently a bump in the road or a yawn, why on earth would anyone aggravate the bump or the yawn into a disaster!
My question to Edwarda was because I inferred that she sees some other threat that is not inherent to the bug but results from people's reaction to it. I was not trying to restart a debate about the inherent problems regarding pipelines or anything else. I'm focusing on the self-generated, second tier problems, the ones we can do something about.
Karen |
