Even if that were true, it might not mean anything. Why might a country not invest in Y2K prevention? Well, maybe it’s not a problem there! You don’t decide on investments at random, after all.
And this is clearly a case where (1) USA/Western investments would save a lot of other countries the need to invest in Y2K prevention because that is where most software comes from; and (2) those countries might not have the problem in the first place because they computerized later (and skipped the phase of hardwiring in dangerously short data types), or hadn’t computerized at all. (“We don’t have a Y2K problem because we don’t have any computers” doesn’t imply Y2K prevention is a bad idea.)
Indeed, I had similar thoughts but didn’t type them up.
In any case I suspect it was a situation in which the cost-benefit analysis would show high risk-aversion (hence probable over-reaction to avoid under-reaction) was justified.
Even if that were true, it might not mean anything. Why might a country not invest in Y2K prevention? Well, maybe it’s not a problem there! You don’t decide on investments at random, after all.
And this is clearly a case where (1) USA/Western investments would save a lot of other countries the need to invest in Y2K prevention because that is where most software comes from; and (2) those countries might not have the problem in the first place because they computerized later (and skipped the phase of hardwiring in dangerously short data types), or hadn’t computerized at all. (“We don’t have a Y2K problem because we don’t have any computers” doesn’t imply Y2K prevention is a bad idea.)
Indeed, I had similar thoughts but didn’t type them up.
In any case I suspect it was a situation in which the cost-benefit analysis would show high risk-aversion (hence probable over-reaction to avoid under-reaction) was justified.