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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rarebird who wrote (7103)	7/24/1999 2:54:00 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 9818

Rarebird, Unfortunately the problem is that there are "extremists" on both sides. I am not an extremist and you should know that by my comments on the GPM thread. I was responding to apparent self-jusitification with referring to me as a polly-anna and claiming that my opinions are dangerous. And I'm not a polly-anna as most of my friends who I discuss Y2K with fully realize. What I just don't understand is why people can't discuss preparations without incorporating apocalyptic fears into the equation. And we can absolutely agree that the gov't is in over its head and the administration is beginning to fully realize how the worst case scenarios can build upon one another if this is not handled very delicately. I can give you a specific example of this: news.excite.com Few people take the time to understand that there is policy battle going within the State Dept. "With less than six months left before the technology-challenging date change, "the global picture that is slowly emerging is cause for concern," said Jacquelyn Williams-Bridgers, the State Department's inspector general. "Our assessments suggest that the global community is likely to experience varying degrees of Y2K-related failures in every sector, in every region and at every economic level," she said.... .....The department's Bureau of Consular Affairs "will bring those concerns to the attention of the traveling public in September," when it begins blowing the whistle on nations it views as Y2K laggards, she said. It is not conducive to maintaining economic stability within Asia and other emerging markets when a major dept head makes these kinds of statements about Y2K. In fact, as Ed Yardeni has stated over and over again, one of the reasons that Asia has not properly dealt with Y2K at a national level is because they were facing a Year1998 problem and could juggle both balls at the same time. There are individuals with the State dept who are issuing warnings to foreign service employees through official channels rather than more subtle means. And no one is providing any caveats that provide any hope. The result is that even before Y2K falls upon the world, these types of statements risk inciting economic decisions that could have FAR GREATER negative consequences than whether or not computers fail. And I can tell that such statements REALLY cause these nations to refrain from being totally honest and forthcoming with information. I'm not making a judgement whether or not the State dept IG has a right to make such statements, but I can state that it isn't very diplomatic, and is in fact, counterproductive to get straight answers. And it is especially ironic that a country like the US, which has REFUSED to provide any official assistance to the nations using US based technology over the past two years, is now opening its trap and offering warnings. Only recently are such plans being discussed. So here's my point. If Y2K is going to cause disruptions, then so be it. I would rather take my chances with the actual physical effects, than making such blatant (and statistically undocumentable) comments upon which 100's of billions of dollars are riding. With the former, we take our chances and with the latter, we CAUSE the very thing we fear most, economic collapse Again, why isn't it proper to advise people... "hey, it's time to get prepared because we really can't tell what's going to happen for sure. But we can tell you that we're not going to sit on our @sses and let the world forever go to hll in a hand basket". Why do we have to invoke disaster scenarios whenever people suggest having 2-3 months worth of food and supplies on hand??* I just don't understand it. Especially, when each of us live every days of our lives at the mercy of COMPLETE UNPREDICTABLE disasters, whether they be tornadoes, hurricanes, chemical spills, nuclear accidents, or what have you. How many of us actually thought about storing quantities of supplies before Y2K?? How many of us will lapse back into complacency once Y2K passes?? These are pertinent questions that each of us have to ask ourselves in order to put Y2K into perspective in our lives. We should worry less about the things we can forsee, than the things we can't predict. Those are the ones that find us all with our proverbial "pants around our ankles". So sorry if I ticked you off, but I'm a miffed myself at the way everybody seems to take great delight in twisting my words and meaning.