From: "Roger Voss" 
Subject: SNET: your Ed Yourdon Timebomb 2000 review
Date: 4 Mar 1998 15:38:25 -0500
To: 


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What's so incredibly wrong with survivalist rhetoric and the notion of having guns,
ammo, plenty of long term storage food, and non-fiat money (gold/silver coins)?

There's not a person on this planet -- including the Yourdons -- that know just how
bad this situation could become. There is the very real possibility that our
existing Federal Reserve note fiat money financial system will become effectively
non-operative because of the Y2K problem in the banking industry and associated
financial industries. This fact alone could sink economies on a global scale.

A prudent person would analyze these potential worse case scenarios and do what they
can right now in the way of realistic precautions. That means insuring at a minimum
that's one's family will have food to eat in event the food supply system becomes
unreliable or severely dysfunctional (again due to potential economic collapse and
chaos). Next one would want to look to personal protection. Just remember what
happened in LA because of the Rodney King thing (the police were absolutely of no
help to those who were victimized in their property and person). This gives us a
glimpse at just how bad domestic unrest could become in the event our fundamental
bedrock financial system and other systems break down and desperate people start
going berserk.

I recommend to people in urban areas to at least get a Ruger PC-9 9mm carbine (for
each member of the family that can shoot) and several thousand rounds of 9mm
parabellum ammo. You can still get pre-ban 20 and 30 round magazines from USA Mags
for this carbine (uses the Ruger P89 9mm pistol mags). This carbine is essentially a
modern version of the M1 Carbine that our GIs used in WWII but shoots the currently
in vogue and highly available 9mm parabellum pistol ammo. The carbine goes for about
$425 and the ammo typically around $150 per 1000 rounds. This carbine is more
effective than a pistol and much easier to learn to shoot well by the average person
(weighs about 6 lbs). Also, given it shoots pistol ammunition it will not have the
significant over penetration like rifle cartridges of .223 (AR15) or .308 (M14,
AR10) -- which is a consideration for urban areas. At the same time it is
semi-automatic and high capacity magazines are still available which gives one a
significant on-line fire power for defensive purposes.

Finally, one's money may well evaporate as it sits in the computer system of one's
bank -- or you may become unable for a significant period of time to get to it. The
Y2k issue may force the bank to shut its computer software programs down as they
begin to spew out unreliable results. Eventually the public will get spooked by Y2K
and start making runs on the banks hoping to convert their ethereal checkbook money
into physical cash in order to preserve and have access to their wealth. However,
less than 5% of the money supply is in the form of cash (paper notes and coins). It
is a physical impossibility to cover such bank runs to even a minute fraction of
deposit values if they are widespread across the nation. That means people need to
beat the rush and also they need to convert some of their wealth into gold and
silver coins as the fiat money system could well collapse and purchasing power of
Federal Reserve note "dollars" could plunge to virtually nil. Buy gold and silver
eagles. Buy the recently minted ones that have the lowest premiums. Fortunately gold
is at an all time low right now so one will get an incredible bargain. Silver has
come off of a bottom -- it probably still has significant upside, though, if Y2K
wreaks havoc on Federal Reserve note fiat money.

For a few thousand (FRN) dollars today one can purchase this additional insurance
against an inevitable catastrophe for our civilization -- that no one knows just how
bad it could end up being. The folks on the Titanic couldn't imagine that their
great ship could be sunk. But it was sunk and many people died because of the
unpleasant reality that came to pass. I know it is discomforting to one's psyche to
dwell on the possibility of worst case Y2K scenarios. But believe me the human
spirit has the ability to eventually get beyond the depression and return to a
proactive optimistic state that will fearlessly and defiantly attempt to confront
any situation. A religiously spiritual grounding can also be very significant in
helping one to face very difficult circumstances. History tells us really bad things
do come along and happen ever so often. We have WWI, WWII, and the Great Depression
of this century that well demostrates that to us.

Cheers,
RogerV
email:rogerv@sttl.uswest.net
(Will accept contact by email for any consultation issues.)


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