Daylight Saving Time is Stupid, and Immoral

I complain and threaten to move to Arizona twice a year when we are expected to change our clocks and habits in response to Daylight Saving Time. Just as an aside, it is Daylight *Saving* Time, not Daylight *Savings* Time. In this context, the word "saving" is an adjective referring to the verb form of saving; the act of saving, in this case, daylight. On the other hand, the word "savings" would refer to the noun form of the word that denotes banking something to get it back later; unfortunately, we can't bank daylight, nor time, and can't get it back once it's gone. So, referring to it as "Daylight Savings Time" just demonstrates ignorance, laziness or apathy.

Anyway, getting back to the subject, there is evidence that Benjamin Franklin was just joking when he proposed Daylight Saving Time (or DST), in a 1784 article. But some dunderhead Brit named William Willit actually took him seriously and proposed it for real in 1907. People, including and especially lawmakers, have asserted that DST helps farmers do their work, makes it safer for school children riding buses, and saves energy, and therefore money. I don't buy it.

You can research the reputed benefits on your own, but one enlightening article that I found on the subject reports that it saves a whopping $12 a year, about enough for a decent, good-sized meal at my favorite fast-food restaurant, with change left over. Other articles also report that DST results in an increased number of automobile crashes, industrial accidents, and heart attacks in the week after the change, particularly because of required changes to sleep patterns, which are fairly messed up already. Besides the money and effort expended to make the required changes to the various timekeeping and recording devices in home and industry nationwide; money and effort that could be applied to improving people's lives in a much more meaningful ways.

Since saving energy and money seem to be dubious reasons for DST, I began wondering about the real reason. So, I have come to the conclusion that, like most things the government does, it's about control. Laws requiring DST are draconian attempts to control the populace, and to test us to see how much control we allow them to have over us. Enough is enough. I think it's time to demand a repeal of DST, or, at least a permanent time change, rather than this twice-a-year-time-change nonsense. Write to your legislators today.

End Daylight Saving Time