People in agriculture DO begin work at the same relative time. Which means if they want to milk their cows or get field work done at the same relative time, they have to get up an hour early.
Meanwhile the grocery stores, farm supply stores, schools, city council meetings, TV schedules, etc. have all adjusted to DST. So Mr. Farmer is getting up at 4 a.m. instead of 5 so he can start working at dawn, and by 8 p.m. he’s getting mighty tired.
Because bus and train schedules would be out of sync with the work schedules of people who started earlier, and many other things would be out of kilter. It really is much, much, simpler just to change the clocks twice a year. In any case, if you don’t like it, why don’t you just go to work an hour later during DST. Wouldn’t that solve your problem?
I guess the OP has been answered, and the thread is getting amusing as everybody debates savings time.
In addition to my general objection that it really serves no good purpose, there is another disadvantage of the hundreds of thousands of hours wasted changing every clock, watch, microwave oven, car clock, etc twice a year.
As the joke has it, an Indian when told about DST said, “White man crazy. It is like cutting off one end of a blanket and sewing it on the other end to make it longer.”
That is true although, if the blanket is permanently stuck to the foot of the bed and you really need more on your torso, then that is all you can really do.
That would be a good argument, if DST were instituted in the wintertime.
That is what I am saying. I am with TimePeace and Save the Clocks, the organizations for year-round DST.
Mods, I think this thread is done. Close it as you see fit. Thanks to all who’ve contributed.
And, here you are wrong. And, you are wrong because *Cecil *sez so. “The real purpose is to conserve energy. You want to line up the hours of daylight with the hours most people are up and about. That way they’ll use the lights less and we’ll waste less oil, coal, etc.”
Stupid idea. There would be no need to change clocks at all, just have everyone start their working day an hour earlier.
I think it is an idea that has outlived its usefullness.
Just the opposite. The millions of dolars of energy saved is - to a very large part- generated by burning fossil fuels. Thus, DST helps reduce America’s dependence on foriegn oil, AND helps reduce global warming.
We can legislate a time change, but we can’t legislate “have everyone start their working day an hour earlier”.
Yeah, you’re right, that would be the only way to make it happen. It is an example of the stupidity of the general population.
“Government wants us all to go to work at 7:00am instead of 8:00”
“NO WAY!, I am NOT going to work an hour earlier, what about my sleep?”
vs,
“Government wants to change our timezone to the next one over”
“Heh, yeah cool.”
Since the OP has been answered, I’m moving this to IMHO for further discussion.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
Here’s an interesting site explaining the rationale behind DST, and its history:
I’m sure it will sound silly, but having moved to a DST-free country, I actually miss it. I miss having sunlight into the later hours of the evening during the summer. As my first winter here ended and summer advanced, I kept waiting for the “longer” days to come, until I eventually realized that it was never going to happen - there was never going to be sunlight beyond 7:00 or so. Took me a while to figure out why.
I used to miss it too when I moved to Queensland from New Zealand, but now I kinda see why Queensland doesn’t bother with it. We are, after all, a tropical/subtropical state, so the weather doesn’t vary much (at least not in South-East Queensland), and nor do the number of daylight hours in a day.
The main problem you get is when you try and call people in Sydney or Melbourne at 4:35pm in the afternoon and wonder why everyone’s gone home early… :smack: