``You never know what will happen and it's not a bad idea to put some money away as a precaution,'' says Dave Cosper, Ford's executive director of corporate finance.

Worries of Year 2000 disruptions spark rash of corporate offerings

-- Be aware (and@be.prudent), August 26, 1999

Answers

I always wonder when walking into a bank how many of the employees have already squirrelled their money away, in cash, coins, or both. Of course they would never admit it, even to each other, & there's no point in asking them.

I suspect that much of the deafening silence on y2k is probably related to this fear of discovery.

-- more (paranoid@than.usual), August 26, 1999.

There are a LOT of folks taking *some* precautions while not being active on the net or talking about it.

This is one of the things that give me some hope of sliding through with an 8 rather than something REALLY

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), August 26, 1999.

I talk to people about it, including bank tellers and know that in one bank that they have all discussed it. I don't know about money, but this woman is putting food away.

At a party last night, I was talking to my friend's husband who is planning on food for three months. He has friends who are prepping, too, and they aren't online.

Moreover, I do talk it up elsewhere and people are prepping, more than you'd think. I even asked the cab driver, a Sikh if he had heard of Y2K and he had! I encouraged him to prep and he seemed to agree. Many ordinary people are preparing.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 26, 1999.

Mara,

There's a lot of what I like to call Bubble Universe Theory Thinking (BUTT) going on. BUTT is when someone assumes that the small number of people in his/her immediate social and professional circle represent what is going on everywhere.

Polly-BUTT goes like this: "Everyone Italk to says Y2K is a hoax, and that's good enough for me"

Doomer-BUTT goes like this: "I don't know anyone who is preparing, so therefore, it's only a small number of us, who will have any preps"

Survivalist-BUTT goes like this: "In my little corner of the wilderness, I've heard people joke about coming to steal my stash, so that's what the entire unprepared world is going to be doing".

You bring up a good point about Doomer-BUTT. Most of us actively advocate NOT talking to our neighbors, for one reason or another. If I'm not talking to the guy next door, what makes me think that he's not preparing and maintaining the same level of secrecy? I've been very discreet about bringing preps home, and I'm reasonably sure no one has noticed. How can I be sure that the people around me aren't exercising the same level of caution (or paranoia, depending on how you view it)? My next door neighbor might be posting on this very forum, and I'd never know it, since we all avoid being too specific about where we live.

You may be right. There may be a lot more G.I.s out there than we realize. Only Y2K itself will tell.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), August 26, 1999.

I don't discuss my preps, but -- we now have four cords of wood in our backyard fenced area. In the 30+ years we've been living here, we've never had more than 2 cords at the very most, usually less than one.

We'd store it all inside if we could.

-- those who have (eyes@to.see), August 26, 1999.