Safe, Not Sorry

There’s a problem associated with being prepared for a potential crisis. Once the event has come and gone, the might-have-been victims are suffused with a mixture of relief and irritation. Relief at the fact that life goes on much as it had before, and irritation at having been assailed by fears that never materialized. Just what was the big deal, anyway, and why was so much time and money spent on getting ready?

That kind of feeling about Y2K, the acronym that has left almost all of us fed up, is fairly prevalent now. Most understand the dangers of calamities such as killer storms and conflicts between nations; you don’t have to experience one in order to realize that time and resources spent in avoiding or minimizing the impact are well spent.

Y2K was different. There is no way to know how bad things might have been, but the potential problems were too serious to contemplate a wait-and-see stance. So, if you’re feeling a trifle miffed about the near-$1-trillion nonevent, here are some things to remember:

Law firms around the world had created Y2K litigation task forces, and woe unto the business or government found wanting in the event of a Y2K disaster. And in this day, computers handle your payroll, your bills, your benefits, your utilities, transportation and more. Care to consider what this week would have been like if any of those necessities had crashed over the weekend?

The smattering of problems that did develop gave some hint of what might have been: a U.S. spy satellite that briefly couldn’t process data and the short shutdown of the automatic system controlling access to two nuclear power plants, to name just two of the frightening instances. Other problems might shake out in the coming days or weeks, but most experts agree that the major threat is over.

For the most part, even the hyperbole was kept to a minimum, with much of the final months of 1999 spent on assurances that critical systems would be up to the task.

It turns out that economic productivity might be fueled by the overhaul of electronic systems brought on by Y2K fears, and there are a lot of poor people who could use some of that food purchased in bulk by those who feared the worst. Some good can come from just about every Y2K preparation.