April 1999, government begins to recruit programmers to fix the governments Y2K problems. Programmers will be given free housing, transportation, food, clothing, double the earnings of last years wages, free private education for their children, maids and security guards at their disposal. Furlough trips to anywhere their heart desires all expenses paid. 30 percent of population is in poverty, long food and soup lines, people starving, elderly and sick are dropping dead. Do you take the government bribe, or do you stay and help your community recover?

-- Barb-Douglas (bardou@yahoo.com), July 17, 1998

Answers

Barb - I went to college in Washington DC. It is already overcrowded with government workers, I have no idea where they would put an influx of programmers. Programmers I know who work at the Pentagon generally have to commute at least an hour every day. If they have a programmer draft, they'd better think in terms of telecommuting.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), July 17, 1998.

Plenty of housing on all the military bases they shut down. Mobile homes are brought in for housing (nice double wides). Senators, and government officials not directly involved in Y2K remediation are told to give up their apartments and go to their private residences in their state. And this wouldn't necessarily all be in Washington, D.C., it where they tell you to go.

-- Barb-Douglas (bardou@yahoo.com), July 17, 1998.

Well, they would still need to acquire and install computers for all those programmers, which is no small undertaking. They'd better start now.

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), July 17, 1998.

This is a pretty dumb, hypothetical question, but I'll bite...

Absolutely, I'd take the job, especially with the benefits you describe.

However, I'd argue the point that by doing so I would NOT be "helping my community recover."

For one thing, my community depends on a functioning national defense as outlined in the Constitution. My community also benefits from a representative democracy (however fouled), which needs to be able to meet, communicate, and express the will of the people. My community relies directly on functioning interstate trade, itself dependent on a well-maintained interstate highway system and a fully compliant federal aviation authority. I could go on.

Bribe, hell. I'd be working to help my community, and thousands others beside, and would well deserve my compensation.

-- Mark Zieg (mzieg@orlandosentinel.com), July 17, 1998.

It is the support of the federal government (caps left off) that got us into the problems we have now. Anybody supporting the feds at this point should be considered an enemy and anybody who doesn't understand that is little informed of anything, but Y2k.

-- Bill (Billc@whths.com), September 07, 1998.

Touchy, touchy, there. Try to avoid the bitterness and hatred, it will spoil the broth.

Recovery from the expected problems requires useful, productive, directed effort. Okay, I've worked for the government before (Navy officer, nuclear submarine repair and construction) and didn't much like it, but it was a necessary job.

Do it again? My family comes first, the community second. If working there (pre-2000, or post 2000) would ease problems and recover from the probable disasters to come, I'd probably do it. If working nationally is too "big brotherly" try locally (church, school, disaster relief, Red Cross, local city hall. If nothing else, help keep the roads plowed (use their gas) so others can get to medical help.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 07, 1998.