On This Day Pre-Y2K
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March 11, 1999 Permalink
I bought a small amount of gold and silver from a local coin dealer today. I paid by money order and thinking that the transaction was under (well under) 10,000 I wouldn’t need to give any identification, that I could remain annonymous. But they required a drivers license and took my SS #. I was told that this was incase there was more than 10,000 bought in a 12 month period by cash, since my money order was the same as cash. Call me parinoid, but I’m not thrilled at the idea of big brother knowing about my little stash. I didn’t have the nerve at that point to ask if this was for their own records or if they repot this to a gov. agency. Is this really required? Any way to buy without giving that info?
—A little scared to give real anem, Time Bomb 2000 Forums (LUSENET), 03/11/99
This letter was sent on March 10:
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Gary,
Where are you? It’s OK if you are resting. You deserve a break. Your site is my home page. I am not used to “no new links”. You usually tell us if we won’t get something new. Your site is a part of my daily ritual. Habits that are almost 3 years old are hard to break!
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This degree of dependence is unhealthy. We are facing a breakdown of a civilization if the power grid goes down, yet some of my site’s visitors seem to be more concerned about what is on the site every day than they are about the actual problem. An hour spent in preparing for y2k is far more valuable than an hour spent visiting this site.
For one day there are no new links, and some people grow concerned. If there are none for two days, some of you grow frantic. I noticed this phenomenon over a year ago. Please, I beg of you, use this site for fun and amusement and an occasional new fact of importance, not as a substitute for actual preparations. Don’t let reading about y2k slow you down from preparing for y2k.
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 03/11/99
