On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
March 19, 1999 Permalink
Even if it’s only going to be “a bump in the road”, prepare for it now. If you hit a speed bump at 5 MPH, nothing happens. If you hit it at 15 mph, you jam your steering and spill coffee all over your lap. If you hit if you hit it at 60 mph, you flip the car over and hurt your passengers.
The government only wants us to be ready for interuptions and many blackouts - but you have to decide how long you think they will be. And hope your guess is right.
Chicken Little ran around crying that the “sky was falling” - it wasn’t actually falling, but, actually, he was right in many ways: problems were definitely coming.
Chicken Little eventually got his head cut off. So be ready for unexpected troubles from unexpected sources.
—Robert E. Cook, P.E., Time Bomb 2000 Forums (LUSENET), 03/19/99
Here is the grim, inescapable fact: you can protect yourself from y2k, but society can’t protect itself.
Societies are too large to change overnight, except for the worse, e.g., in a nuclear war. There are not enough resources in reserve to allow a society to make radical shifts in its purchasing habits.
This is why you can take steps to protect yourself from y2k: there are enough people who have not heard about it. This reduces competition for the property and items you’ll need next year. Most people will not take such action because most people can’t.
There is no place for Maine’s government to store 3 months worth of beans and rice per resident. More to the point, there are not enough buckets. Buckets will run short in this country before grain does. So will diatomaceous earth. (The Mormon Church has already bought up 100% of U.S. production of oxygen absorbers, so you’ll have to buy imports.)
The State can’t protect us. Only we can protect ourselves, and very few of us at that.
To store 200 pounds of beans and rice per person, you would need excess space. I have a suggestion: in the homes of those who will consume the food. But that means: (1) widespread acceptance of individual responsibility, (2) widespread y2k awareness, (3) governments that tell the truth. Forget it.
I have hammered away on this theme for two years: when the panic hits, you will not be able to protect yourself easily if you have not already bought and installed the equipment you need.
There will be hordes angry people in supermarkets late this year. They will be demanding beans and rice. They will be unruly. They will insist that the local store manager get them their beans and rice.
Stay away from supermarkets when this happens.
I keep saying it: spend $60 for 200 lbs of beans and rice per adult, $25 for the buckets, $25 for 25 lbs. of diotomaceaus earth (1% silicon or less). You can afford this.
Procrastination kills.
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 03/19/99
