So, Jim, you plan on spending New Years in Las Vegas. That makes you not only a polly, but a cocky polly. <g> In terms of Y2K risk, that's the next closest thing to being in an airplane over Indonesia.
>>>With regard to your second point about the level of anxiety increasing closer to next January, don't you feel that there was much more "anxiety" earlier in the year? Why do you feel the this anxiety was there then, has dropped off, and will ramp up again before January.<<<
I didn't get into this issue until this past July, so I didn't personally observe the anxiety level earlier in the year. Still, I think a lull around this time is natural.
Part of the reason is what I was saying earlier about people having already decided what they're going to do or not do. There's a lot of stress associated with making big decisions. There's research to do and the stress of fitting the effort in between making a deal at work and getting the kids to the orthodontist. There's debate and assessment over something that's potentially life threatening. For at least half the population (according to Myers-Briggs, if I recall correctly), the anxiety of making the decision is relieved with the decision. That's a substantial reduction in total anxiety. Even if one is still anxious about Y2K itself, at least the collateral anxiety of making a decision and completing a plan is over.
Another factor is that, as you say, many have decided that it's not going to be as big a deal as some had earlier suggested. There seems to be less support for a scenario of massive infrastructure failure, at least in North America, so the risk is perceived to be more of a business risk than a life-and-death risk. While the potential of a recession produces anxiety, it's not the intense anxiety you get with fears of marauding gangs of crazed thugs who will kill you for your peanut butter and bottled water.
But what do I know...
Karen |
