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The history of Y2K all but come from this main point, "The Memory". When the computer were first made, they were really expansive and big. Because of their size and the cost computer usually have very little memory (far less than the laptop sitting on your desk right now). Since memory is so expansive, it really made since for programmers to make programs that take up the least memory. Well, to the programmers it was obvious that the date was a great way to save memory. Why did these programmers do such a horrible thing as to unleash a bug that might end the world? The answer is quiet simple really, they didn't think that the future programmer will use them. In the 1950s, who would have imagined that in 40 years, society could become so dependent on the invention they called computer? In the early days of computing, developers were not thinking into the next century. Certainly, they imagined, their programs would be obsolete long before 2000.
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So, if programmers knew that this bug exist why didn't they fix it earlier? Well, for few programmer that actually thought about year 2000, the problem really wasn't that important. They never thought that their program would ever last that long to become a problem. However, once the industries have installed their program and they didn't want to change it. They thought why waste money and change something that is not broken. That is how these old programs become the bases of our industry today. Another problem with the industry is that all program have a backward compatibility. When windows first came out, they must support DOS. Then more advanced windows came out and these must support all the earier windows and DOS. So we continued to build the new on top of the old, which made a simple and easily fixed problem into a problem of enormous proportion. Also because these industry wanted to save money they reuse the codes over and over. So this problem like virus spread out through all computer, making the already big problem into something even bigger.
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American Corporation have always a place to spend time and money on. So when there is something that is not really important like the 2 digit problem we all know today as Y2K, they ignore it. There is no way a CEO will grant a large sum of money to correct something that is not going to benefit him in anyway. Also the most ancient tridition of American Corporations is that they need to stay competitive. So if one company takes a long time producing a product, they will surely close down. The public doesn't care about something in the future. So if you take a long time to perfect a program with a 4 digit system, people will already have the pragram from some other company who chose not to fix the bug. The "lean and mean" corporate strategy can backfire, at least in the case of the millennium bug. In an effort to save money, the manpower that could have been devoted to addressing the issue was deliberately let go.
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