When I was a kid, I didn’t mind Daylight Savings Time as much. It didn’t start until April and in the Midwest its arrival meant that Spring was here to stay…usually.
The original purpose for DST in the Modern Era goes back to WWII. By moving our clocks around the sun’s position to get the maximum amount of light was a great idea then but I think houses/buildings relied more on natural lighting. Electricity may have been costlier too. My grandparents were often in a tizzy over their “light bills” as they complained about you leaving a lamp or something on. Today, I work in an office building in which the sun shining through the windows creates an annoying glare while the overhead lights are on whenever someone is present, in short, permanently. Our house is even worse since there’s little space between each unit. It isn’t pitch black yet we can function for the sunlight makes plenty of background illumination.
I have recently joined the club to abolish DST. It has outlived its usefulness because America isn’t a rural society, nor has it been after the 1920 census. All DST does now is throw us all off for several weeks as we adjust our sleeping patterns. When we “fall back” in November, it is nice to “regain” an hour of sleep while there’s a different disruption in our routines. Another reason to ditch this relates to traffic. Practically every following Monday, there’s a spike in accidents from tired drivers and/or people who realize their late to work. I feel the studies claiming the change contributes to high blood pressure and heart stress needs further analysis; I always thought those conditions come from longer-term bad habits.
Over in Europe, the land that hasn’t completely lost its mind, they are on the verge of abandoning DST, or what they call Summer Hours. I may have remembered this incorrectly but my friend in Amsterdam said 2019 is the last year the Dutch are bothering, maybe the whole EU. Obviously America can’t do this. It makes sense and it wasn’t invented here. Oh yeah, it’s probably a “socialist” conspiracy.
Beyond DST making me tired for a couple weeks, I came around to the abolish camp during the GOP’s 1995-2007 Contract on America reign. Many forgot how the Republicans pushed up the starting weekend and pushed back the ending. Despite numerous scientists and doctors begging them not to as the data pointing toward negative side effects were mounting, the Party of Greed did it anyway. Why? NPR’s story said it was at the behest of the golf and shopping mall lobbyists. Allegedly with the latter, people are more likely to go hit the outdoor malls, etc after work if the sun is still out. The former was outrightly obvious. Playing and supporting the sport of wealthy assholes is in the Republicans’ foundation of their flawed values. Golf is a waste of real estate and water so it’s perfect. If the Scotts invented it centuries earlier, you’d see portraits of Henry VIII and Roman emperors playing.