From: mark@unicorn.com
Date: Thu Apr 09 1998 - 09:27:24 MDT
Dan Fabulich [daniel.fabulich@yale.edu] wrote:
>The utilities will only go out if the banking system is in shambles...
Or there's a bug that they can't fix because the power systems went out
too, and they can't even run the computers long enough to find it. I don't
expect that to happen, but if there are unexpected bugs that take down
most of the power generation system for weeks then the rest of the economy
is probably hosed. If there aren't, then we'll probably be OK by 2001.
>The FDIC would only stop if the government went bankrupt; which won't
>happen, because the IRS will not go down permanently. And fortunately for
>the banks, they're closed Jan. 1. It's a national holiday. :)
The question is, how long does the IRS have to go down before all those
people who've lent trillions of dollars to the Feds decide that they're
uncreditworthy and want their money back?
Looking at the IRS' past record with computer systems I'd say that a long shutdown is quite probable; not to mention that they'll have to be willing
to pay market prices when most of the world's COBOL programmers will be
busy earning a hundred dollars an hour or more with commercial
organizations.
Based on what I've read, the best solution to the IRS problem would be
to throw out their current system and write a new one from scratch; but
they tried that a few years ago and failed.
I don't believe much of what Gary North says, but I certainly expect that
Y2K will have a major impact on the US government and others.
Mark
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