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The Truth Will Set Us Free
by Sally Strackbein
It finally came to me. The answer to how to tell the truth about Y2K without disrupting the economy.
Misinformation results in fear and irrational behavior.
Remember the movie, "It' a Wonderful Life," with Jimmy Stewart? That movie showed a bank run.. Because of a careless mistake by one man and a devious scheme by another, the day's cash from the
Building and Loan was not deposited at the bank. As a result, there is a run on the Building and Loan. The people are afraid and want their money immediately in cash. Jimmy Stewart, as George, the owner
of the Building and Loan, describes perfectly why everyone cannot get all of their money out of the bank:
George: "… but you . . . you . . . you're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house . . .(to one of the men). . . right
next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and a hundred others. Why, you're lending them the money to build, and then, they're going to pay it back to you as best they can. Now
what are you going to do? Foreclose on them?"
If we are given all the information, most of us will act rationally. The rational will put social pressure on the irrational.
Omissions can be deadly.
The United States government is downplaying the threat of Y2K because they fear that we will act irrationally and disrupt the economy. What an awful balancing act - tell us about Y2K but don't disrupt the
economy. What a no-win situation!
If Y2K really does cause disruptions, even for a short time, people can die from cold, hunger or lack of water or sanitation.
Tell the truth!
The government should tell us there may be disruptions in the infrastructure due to Y2K related failures. Tell us we may be without any or all of the basic services they depend on for an hour, a day or
longer. Tell us if they are prepared, we can all pull together and overcome any obstacles.
Remind us that we have an extraordinary history of coming together and working miracles when the need arises.
Information makes us strong.
Bank or stock market runs could disrupt our current, good economy. To prevent a Y2K run on the banks, we need to explain to everyone that their money is not in the vault in the bank. Their money funded
loans on houses and businesses.
We need to tell everyone to prepare to provide their own heat, light, water, food and waste disposal for a while. This will not disrupt the economy. The grocery stores will sell more goods, as will
warehouse and hardware stores. Our society will return to the level of preparedness that was common in our grandparents' day. If Y2K is a non-problem, we will not stop shopping; we will not eat canned
food. We will buy fresh food and keep the non-perishable food for another emergency or we will donate to a food bank for the needy. In either case, preparedness is a win-win game.
We need to inform John Koskinen, President Clinton, Senator Bennett, and whoever else we can think of that prudent, rational behavior will be based on the comfort level that preparedness brings.
The Plan
1. Prepare for Y2K prudently, as an insurance policy.
2. Prepare for major glitches yet hope for minor ones.
3. Stay in your home and/or neighborhood and celebrate with neighbors and family. Allow those who are working on whatever problems may occur, to fix them in peace.
4. Enable the emergency folks to handle the real emergencies. If problems do occur, stay at home or in your neighborhood and do not place yourself or your family in a situation that could
cause another emergency.
5. Declare a business and bank holiday from noon on December 31, 1999 to January 4, 2000. Banks are not normally open on New Years Day anyway. Let's not create false expectations by having
banks and businesses open on January 1.
Preparation is insurance.
Now, what is prudent preparation? For what length of disruption should people prepare? The government's 3-day storm metaphor is ludicrous. When they tell us that everything is OK and, oh, by-the-way,
prepare for a 3-day storm, most people do nothing. When a 3-day storm hits, they just pack the van and go to grandma's. If we have Y2K disruptions, grandma will probably be coming to their house. Our
just-in-time method of delivery of goods is vulnerable to Y2K problems, as is every aspect of our infrastructure.
One month or more seems a reasonable length of time. Where does my one month suggestion come from? It takes time to get computer chips and parts in the best of times. Assuming a few glitches, it would not
be unlikely for it to take weeks to get parts for a water or electrical system when hundreds of systems need the same or similar parts at exactly the same time. It frequently takes days or more to find a
programming error and fix it. Then again, maybe a month isn't nearly enough.
The new tradition
Wouldn't open and honest elected officials be wonderful? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to trust information we receive? Wouldn't it be wonderful to know that information is as complete as is
possible? Wouldn't it be reassuring to cut through the noise of one-in-a-million, legalese warnings to recognize meaningful warnings? Wouldn't it be wonderful to have advance notice of impending storms?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the President would tell us about the threat of Y2K?
www.y2kkitchen.com Copyright © Sally Strackbein sally@y2kkitchen.com
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