Other Countries Saved

On Y2K Because U.S. Spent

To the editors:

The Jan. 12 editorial dissent by Robin S. Lee ("Too Much Money, Too Late") is as inaccurate as it is self-contradictory. It is strange that Lee laments the U.S. efforts as too late at the same time he praises "developed nations such as Italy" for starting late and doing little to prepare. It is unclear whether he would have preferred us to follow Italy's path, and do very little very late, or to take his own advice and begin preparing two decades ago.

Lee misses an important point on Italy and other nations. Italy was able to "spend far less than the U.S.," and still "[do] just fine," precisely because the U.S. spent so much. As with all developments in technology, those who copy benefit more than those who create. The United States and a handful of other countries absorbed all of the costs of identifying and testing problems before Italy even considered Y2K. Countries like Italy were able to get a free ride by using the knowledge we had already spent so much to acquire. In the words of a White House Y2K official with whom I spoke, they did exactly what Lee "criticizes the United States for doing. They waited."

Lee's position is as alarmist as the right-wing black helicopter crowd's, They doubtlessly agree that the government spent "money just to make sure its very own weaponry wouldn't accidentally launch." There was never any concern among those knowledgible that our missiles, nuclear or otherwise, would launch because of Y2K. A missile requires manual, human action in order to be launched.