Y2K: DID WE SOLVE IT, OR GET CAUGHT IN SCAM?

It may take years to assess the impact of the so-called Y2K bug. How real was the problem? Did we overreact? Did warnings somehow turn into threats?

There seem to be two basic schools of thought, now that the calendar says 2000 and most of the world is getting along just fine, thank you.

The first school maintains that it was because of the dire warnings and months-long attention to potential computer glitches that those problems were avoided albeit at substantial cost. The other school insists the expected computer woes were overblown and went too far. Some of this group have used words like "scam" to summarize their thinking.

It's hard to say for sure, but both camps are probably right in many respects.

For one thing, there were real computer programming hitches that needed to be fixed. And it is reasonable to conclude that the New Year's Eve celebrations around the world might not have gone off without a hitch if some programming changes hadn't been repaired.

On the other hand, even in areas of the world where scarcely any attention was paid to the Y2K bug, everything from utilities to stock markets to governments made it past the holiday without any major problems.

Even owners of home computers are scratching their heads about the Y2K fuss. While many shelled out for upgrades to programs or computers that weren't supposed to work in the new year, many others simply took their chances -- and are still using their home computers without any problems.

It was of some comfort that federal, state and local governments around the nation were prepared to confront any major glitches that might occur. And it was of further comfort that the officials who stayed up all night had little to do except toast the new year.

But it has been no comfort at all to see federal officials take credit for "saving" the country from disaster with costly computer fixes. While the U.S. government spent a chunk of change to make its computers 2000 compliant, it was up to private industry to foot the biggest share of the cost associated with the Y2K situation. Industries, businesses, retailers and service providers spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure their computers were up to snuff. Give them a little credit for doing what had to be done to make sure everything ran smoothly of the first day of the year.

And give the private sector credit for being successful in its effort.