We are seeing a fair amount of revisionist history on Y2K-related subjects. I'm only mildly surprised to read long-time forum regulars claiming they always thought "modest" preparations were sufficient. For anyone with a decent memory (or access to the archives), it's quite easy to see how extreme the preparations became. As an example, I've borried a post from our old friend Andy... who seems MIA since rollover. (Hmmm... perhaps he accidently locked himself into his bunker.)

"OK I've cracked. Rant on.

1. Water storage: seven days.

[Bullshit. Store as much as you can get away with. Water is free and plentiful now. Buy a filter. If you have the means, sink a well.]

2. Food storage: 30 days.

[Bullshit. Why 30? Why not 29? Why not 31? Total and utter bullshit. If you are taking y2k seriously at all stock up on as much as reasonably possible (that's for you to decide, for me it will be over one year). go to Sam's or Costco - use your commons sense. You don't have to buy specialist MRE's. Just but tinned stuff, rice, beans, spices, multivitamins. If it's a bump, eat it or give it to food shelters. It's a win win situation here. treble-Deckers' advice is total BS as you all know.]

3. Total Y2K preparation budget: No more than $1,000. (Non-camping families may increase to $2,000.)

[Again, why this inane arbitrary limit. BS. Spend what you NEED to spend. You are talking about your and your loved ones' lives fer crissakes. Cost should be no object.]

WARNING: Do not accrue debt to finance preparations. Cut up the charge cards, pay down your debt and build at least six months of savings into a liquid account. If you are worried about banking problems, request December statements and tap your savings to have cashiers checks issued for all of your January bills. 4. Total withdrawals from retirement funds: $0

[And more BS. If you don't have the means to prepare, max out your credit cards. Spend what needs to be spent to safeguard you or your family. This is not a game. This could be life and death. It's fiat money. You will not regret taking my advice if TS really HTF next year. If it's a bump - so what, pay the interest, buy a cheaper car next year, pay off the cards with the difference - improvise, think laterally.]

5. Firearms purchases: $0.

Rationale: If you havent found a reason to own a firearm yet, you might want to sit tight.

[Hypocrite. Quadruple decker the "gentleman" hunter, has an veritable arsenal. Yet he "advises" YOU to sit tight. Do nothing. No protection. Total hypocrite here folks.]

6. Relocation: No, unless you are living in a house too large/expensive for your earnings ability.

[Total bollocks once again. If you are serious, and have the means, relocate away from major population centres. There will be roting, mayhem, no police protection (not that there ever was in all reality). I've relocated - many people have - I don't regret it, far happier now with a better salry to boot. Suggestion. If you can't or won't relocate - make arrangements with friends or family in the country. Buy a second-hand mobile home - put it on rented or owned property with hook-ups in the middle of nowhere. You can always sell it if it's a bump. Think laterally - there are many many options here.]

7. Generator: No, unless you depend on an electric well pump. Alternative heat source: Yes, but hey, who doesnt like a wood stove or fireplace?

[Why not a generator? You can always resell them. There is always a market for them. You can re-charge nicad batteries. You can help out your solar system. If you have the means, go for it. Why not?]

8. Silver/Gold: No.

Rationale: A better investment is improving your skills and developing alternative career options. Your education is portable, always available and will last as long as you do. Unlike gold or silver, it cannot be taken (without killing you.)

Sorry for the delay.

[BS once again. Gold and silver have been a means of preserving one's wealth since time immemorial. What is so different today? Gold is being manipulated now to be artificially well below $300. When the tiger gets out of the bag gold will increase dramatically, as will silver. Have a proportion of your wealth in precious metals, barter items, cash, food, water and friends/family. Be liquid. Stay alert as we approach rollover. watch the signs,. be prepare to change your plans. Follow your gut, your intuition. Be able to move if you have to. Have a bug out bag. Have caches in the countryside. Use your head. Read bewteen corporate and government spin. The writing's on the wall - this is going to be bad and quintuple-deckers' "advice" fails to factor in these things. He's an obvious know-nothing and dangerous troll. There is NO SUCH THING as an optimist's prepartion list. An optimist wouldn't have one fer crissakes.

Be A PESSIMIST and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

For somebody who tries to purports to be a brainiac, if I was a CEO and this marron delivered such a report to me his ass would be out the door so quick it would be dragging his balls behind it.

What utter tosh this troll continues to spew forth on all manner of subjects.

(Rant off ;) )

Maroon.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 19, 1999."

Ignoring the usual personal attacks, it's clear Andy advocated a rather devoted approach to preparation. Now, I'm sure we'll have a few old-timers argue that Andy was an isolated case, an extremist. Au contraire... Andy was representative of a much larger group (at least within the forum). This group chided anyone who fell short of making a MAXIMUM effort in preparation (sort of a neo-survivalist thing.)

Here's the real question... why did some people fall into utter obsession on preparations?

-- Ken Decker (kcdecker@worldnet.att.net), March 18, 2000

Answers

"Gold is being manipulated now to be artificially well below $300"

Apparently, gold is still being manipulated since it is still below $300.

But at least you didn't turn out to be such a dangerous troll after all :^)

I wonder how many people really took Andy seriously? I suspect very few. He was always just one of the colorful characters to me.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), March 18, 2000.

Ken:

I didn't notice your thoughts on my response to your FIRST Andy thread. I'm not suggesting that you SHOULD have responded to my thoughts, but if you're going to continue to hold Andy's threads from last year as an example, I would think you'd stick around the threads you start and at least COMMENT....or have I missed your point altogether?

-- Anita (notgiving@anymore.thingee), March 18, 2000.

They only told you what people did before, just in time came around. The smart thing to do is have a good supply in case of troubles, didn't matter what type of troubles.

-- ET (bneville@zebra.net), March 18, 2000.

BIG QUESTION: Would you have prepared if a respected representative of the electric power industry had said prior to the rollover that they (the industry) were not sure how things were going to turn out. The representative in question made such a statement, but not until late January of 2000. It he had said the same thing in October, November, or December, WHAT would you have done?

-- abc (abc@cba.cum), March 19, 2000.

Hee hee, hey Ken, with a bit of luck and a bit of time you should be able to dig up some statements that I would rather forget too.

*laughing at my own FoOLisHNEsS*

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), March 19, 2000.

C'mon now Unc, we weren't fOOliSh! Hindsight is 20/20. We were cautious and ready for whichever way it went. So it went great. So now you've got to come through your promise and throw that party *8-)

-- Chris (!@#$@pond.com), March 19, 2000.

Chris,Unc

Like I said on another thread, lets have a big pot-luck and maybe a bean cookoff.

Or a weekend camping trip off the grid,bring the food and the solar toys.

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), March 19, 2000.

I will try be more clear: A respected representative of the electric power industry said in late January of 2000 that they did not know how the rollover would go.

I for one would have liked to hear this prior to the rollover. I would have believed this.

If the industry had shared that view BEFORE the rollover, people would have used their commonsense and prepared in order to be on the safe side.

As it turned out, a majority of people did not prepare because they thought that there was no reason to.

What I am asking is this: would you have prepared if a spokesman from the electric power industry said in December that the electric power industry was not certain what the impact of Y2K would be?

-- abc (abc@cba.cum), March 19, 2000.

Unc,

PLEASE dont give him no more wonderful ideas, I cant bear to see my old posts.......how humiliating....lol

Like a give a rip anyhow....

Bottom line, I got scared acted in the 'fear of the moment' made a complete ass of myself, but, hey no worse than a night at the bar?

---consumer

whos day is getting better now that unc is back...

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), March 19, 2000.

Consumer,

Does it really matter anyway? Surely,the extra stuff has not gone to waste and has saved you a little money.

Better safe than sorry!!!

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), March 19, 2000.

ABC:

I don't know what respected utility figure you're refering to. Can you give us a link?

My utility said we were Y2K ready. We said that the probablity of any major problem was extremely small but not zero. The vast majority of the public did take prudent precautions - they bought some extra flashlights and batteries and some extra canned goods.

No one can ever give you a 100% certainty that there won't be a problem in any form of human endevour. But, less than 100% does not mean zero and that's where some folks went over the edge. If you only listen to voices that tell you that things are going to be bad, that's what you're going to believe.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), March 20, 2000.

I know why Andrew Rowland wanted everyone to charge up the old plasticcards...he told us all that "Visa is Toast", remember?

ROTF!!!

-- InfoDandy (Dandy@ndy.msn), March 20, 2000.