When the world was at its lowest during World War I sacrifices needed to be made in order to support the global effort to snuff out nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. In a bid to conserve fuel and energy, the U.S. turned to Daylight Saving Time in 1918. We pulled the clocks forward by one hour during the summer to allow for the regular operation of day-to-day business and schooling to take place during sunlight hours, preventing the need for more lamp oil.
Over 100 years later the practice is still in place despite significant increases in efficiency, proliferation of the automobile, and nobody fucking liking it. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have proposed eliminating Daylight Saving Time altogether as part of their Department of Government Efficiency goings on, and believe it or not, I think that’s a pretty good idea.
Nearly every state in the nation has introduced a bill or voted on discontinuing the practice of changing the clocks twice per year. Arizona and Hawaii don’t participate in DST already, and it seems many other states are hinging on how California’s 2018 vote for permanent DST will shake out. Everyone who is forced to spring forward and fall back hates the practice, and it actually seems to cause a lot more problems than it solves.
When it comes to the streets of our fair nation, Daylight Saving Time is a menace to safety and causes a noticeable spike in car crashes, running into the hundreds. A 2020 study suggested that car crashes are about six percent more likely in the immediate aftermath of clocks moving forward. Losing that hour causes commuters to be more susceptible to decreased concentration, caused by sleep deprivation and fatigue. Compound that decreased concentration with darker morning commutes and circadian rhythm changes and you’ve got a recipe for smashed cars and dead pedestrians. An investigation by AAA suggests as many as 18 percent of car crashes are caused by sleep deprivation, and DST switches only prove to exacerbate the issue.
I think on the face of it, a Department of Government Efficiency is probably a good idea. Investigating the hows and whys of federal government spending is all well and good, but putting dueling dipshits Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of it is possibly the worst idea of all time. A couple of the wealthiest people on the planet are coming to tell you that your civil liberties, healthcare, retirement, and freedoms are too expensive, and you should be very worried about that. You do not ever, in fact, gotta hand it to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, but eliminating DST is probably the best thing they could do for public support. This would be an extremely popular policy, as over 63 percent of Americans support abolition of the biannual clock change, and it could save quite a few lives.
On the longest sunlight day of the year, the Summer Solstice, the average American would lose around 40 minutes of sunlight to regular sleeping hours. Rather than commuting in the dark and risking a major crash or potentially even killing someone, I think that’s a tradeoff I’d be willing to accept, and it seems the majority of the American people agree with me.
