October Surprise: Government Shuts Down, Stocks Close Up, Distracted Americans Shrug

Tuesday morning, as the clock struck midnight on our phones and 00:00 via the COUNTDOWN TO SHUTDOWN ticking time bombs on our television screens, a feeling that hadn’t hit me in 13 years and nine months overcame me.

Hmmm…13 years, nine months. That would be New Year’s Eve when 1999 became 2000. And thanks to being overserved at my friend’s “Newmannium” party on Manhattan’s West Side–the details are sketchy–but I believe there was a palpable fear that the nation’s entire digital infrastructure would shut down thanks to the Y2K bug. The potential result? Cats and dogs, living together…mass hysteria.

But the bug ended up a big ado about nothing. Apocalypse averted. Companies and organizations worldwide fixed and upgraded their respective computer systems in advance. We were ready.

Back to the future that is October 1, 2013, America braced for another calamity in the form of a partial government shutdown, only to find things quite normal at 12:01 AM, 2:24 AM or noon the next day. In my case here in the ‘burbs of North Jersey, a school bus arrived at 8:00 AM on our corner to pick up the same kids going to school as it had the day before. My recycling was collected from the curb, as it is every Tuesday. A local police officer pulled over another driver at the same speed trap he seems to sit at every day (at the bottom of a hill in a 25 MPH zone…works every time).

Cats and dogs weren’t living together.

There was no mass hysteria.

That’s not to say hundreds of thousands of folks aren’t suffering in the form of non-essential government workers—about 800,000 total—who won’t be getting a paycheck this week. But I wonder how much our increasingly self-absorbed nation really cares about them. After all, as long as our garbage gets picked up, our Wi-Fi is working properly and our phones can keep diverting our attention for hours on end–here’s what many will think, but never actually say : What’s a few more hundred thousand out of work when 22 million Americans already don’t have a job?

Besides, the conventional wisdom is that we’ve already been through this before in 2013. Remember the sequester? Flights grounded, national security threatened. Yup, the President and Harry Reid said the sky would fall. But after nothing happened and daily lives weren’t affected, Americans shrugged and watched Skyfall on Netflix instead.

Apathy seems to be the rule on lots of issues there days. The NSA is spying on me? What do I care? Most of the formerly private details of my life are already all over my Facebook page, my Twitter feed. They want to listen to the my phone calls? I haven’t made one of those in months. LOL. #callmemaybe. The IRS is targeting conservative groups? I’m not part of any conservative group, so as long as I get my tax return, do I really give a damn? Benghazi was attacked, four Americans were killed? What difference does it make how it happened?

The comments section below will feature a few folks who will show they care, that they’re following this stuff closely. Good for them, but they’re in the minority. Don’t believe me? If you can tear yourself away from a computer or phone screen for an hour or two, go to your local pub, a tailgate, a party over the weekend.

Ask eight people who the Secretary of State is. If three in eight can, you’re either at the pregame for Harvard-Yale or in John Kerry‘s actual kitchen.

And while you’re at it, ask eight people if they knew when Obamacare sign-up was supposed to start. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that despite all the hype, hubbub and debate around Obamacare, one in eight Americans knew that sign-up started today. And the system still can’t handle it.

Imagine if Americans were actually informed and, say, four in eight knew Tuesday was the day. The system would melt faster than Twitter during Miley’s twerking.

Many in the media don’t seem to understand this inside the bubble. Anchors jump right into talk about continuing resolutions, individual mandates, co-pays and premiums. What? Only complete idiots don’t know what those terms mean?

Well, outside the bubble most Americans really don’t. For example, The Journal of Health Economics recently discovered that only 14% of those participating in its poll understand relatively simple health insurance terms, while just over 1-in-10 (11 percent) could compute the price of a four-day hospital stay after being provided a hypothetical plan. On the political front, only 35 percent could name their representative in Congress. Do you really think they know what this whole clean CR thing means?

So while many in the media—particularly from the left—talk about catastrophic consequences for the GOP because of blame directed at them for shutting down the government, know this: Money makes the world go round. As cold as it sounds, a majority of people only care about something when their wallets, jobs and/or kids are affected. And despite hearing that Wall Street would experience Black Tuesday after the government shutdown today, a funny thing happened: The Dow, NASDAQ, S&P 500…they all closed up.

As of 4:00PM Tuesday, phones with a good charge are working.

Twitter is tweeting.

Facebook posters are still annoying.

My fantasy football team still sucks (well, one of them, anyway…).

Cable news still features shutdown clocks in the lower third of the screen. Producers love clocks…

My recycling bins sit empty at the end of the driveway.

A school bus dropped off the same kids I saw get picked up this morning.

For most Americans, it was just another Tuesday in October.

Government shutdown?

Obamacare started yesterday?

Seems like most folks—the ones fortunate enough today to not work for the federal government—seem to care about something else…

Like going about their lives.

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Follow Joe Concha on Twitter @ConchSports

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.