Where I live, the sun rises at 7:15 AM on the shortest day of the year (the Winter solstice in December).
On the longest day of the year, the sun rises at 4:30 AM (without Daylight Savings Time) on the longest day of the year (the Summer solstice in June).
If I go to a 9 - 5 job, then I’m getting up at dawn in December. However, in June, the sun’s been up almost two hours already when I get up. That’s two hours of wasted sunlight while I sleep (if I can sleep with the sunlight coming in the windows). It wastes energy, too (as Cecil’s column mentions).
One solution would be for all businesses to just start earlier. They could say, “From April to October, we’ll open at 8 AM instead of 9 AM.” And then, we would all reset our alarms (not the clocks, the time to get up) to go off at 6 AM rather than 7 AM. But this would mean all businesses would have to change their signs indicating when they’re open. And, I’m betting that they’d be some businesses that refuse to change their schedule out of stubbornness or ignorance.
So instead, the government steps in and says, “Everyone, change your clocks by an hour.” By adding an hour to the clock, this has the practical effect of making us all get up an hour earlier. And only a few idiots (Cecil’s words, not mine) in the Midwest are the holdouts.
Peace.
Actually, it’d be even more efficient to have a Spring, Summer, and Fall Daylight savings time. With Spring and Fall being Standard + 1 hour and Summer being Standard + 2 hours. Imagine the sun setting in the Summer at 9:30 PM (with twilight until 10 PM)!
Meaningless? As it stands now, to get rid of it as you imply would certainly add meaning; we’ll just call it chaos.
The concept put forth by brad_d with which you agree would be fine, as long as everyone stayed in their own geographic area. Anyone who travels to a different area who not only suffer jet lag for a while, but have to readjust their concept of a work schedule.
When practicallity sets in, especially when we talk about the masses (those average people who are not SDMB members), I think you will find your plan will fall flat. Most people will never understand it or attempt to understand part of it and then abandon it.
After all, too many still believe daylight saving means there really is an extra hour of sunlight during the summer! They complain the extra hour is causing their curtains to fade just that much faster. Now you want to create a whole new time system? Yeah, right.
FWIW, I think this thread has evolved into a GD.
Hate to break this to you, but, people have been saying ‘savings’ so often, that I’ve got a usage cite and three dictionaries that says the ‘s’ is OK. Besides, daylight savings edged out daylight saving in a Google fight.