13. Governments were unprepared for the Y2K bug
In the United States and in Western Europe, government programs were initiated to prevent the pending disaster of the Y2K problem. The United States enacted the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act, in essence, a law requiring companies and government entities to share information and progress over solving the problem. Similar legislation and actions occurred in Europe. The United Nations convened a conference on the problem in late 1998, and created the International Y2K Cooperation Center in Washington DC. In the United States alone almost $150 billion was invested by businesses and governments to ensure their systems were adapted to a new term in the English language – Y2K compliant.
News media dutifully reported on the efforts, and computer consultants and programmers, particularly those adept with COBOL, found their services in high demand. Though the problem was very real, threatening all sorts of infrastructure and institutional services, work to correct it was successful. As the feared date approached, nearly all necessary services and software systems were protected, having become Y2K compliant. Yet a large number of citizens around the world looked at the last tick of the clock on December 31, 1999, as the beginning of the end of the world. They were egged on by those who saw a potential for profit and self-advancement.