The health care system collapses. Its every person for themself. Entities that do not now rely upon sophisticated interconnected systems gangs, third world countries, etc. will be at a competitive advantage. For example, a one-day shutdown of a single bank might cause many people to want to withdraw money from many banks at once. Or a temporary gas shortage will lead everybody to fill up, creating systems failures that are not directly date-glitch related.
Strong leadership can prepare people for unified action.
Until now the Clinton Administration has treated the Year 2000 Problem as a minor computer glitch perhaps because it does not yet fully understand that the problem extends beyond the technological, or perhaps because it believes that it will cause panic if it acknowledges the magnitude of the problem. Neither has business nor NGO leadership materialized. But the above analysis suggests that this should change, that there could be effective action by leaders and opinion makers to rally people to a sense of common purpose.