The end of the summer time is delayed

On Sunday, Arizonans, Hawaiians and residents of several American territories went happy in their days, without having to worry about a task that annoys most Americans; We did not have to change our watches to accommodate annually at summer time. And we will not have to return to standard autumn time, because this is what our watches display throughout the year. Most of our countrymen would like to join us in the benevolent neglect of the time settings of our watches.

Americans want to stop changing watches

“As March 9 passes to summer time (DST) approaches in the US. Most Americans (54%) say they are ready to give up practice.” Gallup reported last week. This is a huge change in the 90s, when almost three quarters of Americans thought that changing their watches twice a year was a good idea. This is an area of ​​rare bipartidist agreement, with majorities of both democrats and Republicans eager to give up clock changes.

A multitude of 48 percent favors the preservation of standard time all year; 24 percent would put the summer time in force throughout the year.

Two years ago Yogov Pollters found a Most (62 percent) favored the end of the clock switching ritual. But the respondents in that survey were evenly divided if the watches were to be permanently set at standard or summer time. Fatig over the game with watches and screwing the programs was the unification factor. The adjustment of watches is an experiment of a century with which people are tired.

“The day’s saving time was introduced nationally in 1918, the last year of the First World War, when the US sought to keep the fuel prolonging the working hours as a need for war,” Gallup notes. Era reimbursed during the -a World War IIthen became a local option by 1966. In that year Federal law has changed to allow states to opt or overcome clock changes, as long as they have done this at national level (except those time zones that could divide the difference).

Since then, the federal government has faced the beginning and stop data several times. It was a short experiment During the 1970s, an energy crunch with summer time throughout the year. He proved to be wildly unpopular and was concluded by Congress.

The full pull of the jack on the twice annual reset would make sense. While the clock change has its wrong fans, the practice was born from a promise of cost savings that have never come to an end. For most of us, it imposes more costs than benefits.

DST increases energy consumption and imposes health risks

“Recent research suggests that DST actually increases energy consumption,” Laura Grant, an economy teacher at Claremont McKenna College, wrote in 2016. Grant co -authorized a study with economist Yale, Matthew Kotchen, who examines Indiana, who, Stradding Time Time, only noticed partially the summer time until 2006 When the practice went to the state level. “We have shown that DST has actually increased the demand for residential electricity in Indiana by 1 to 4 percent annually,” she added.

The additional energy consumption took place in summer. With more daylight, people run air conditioning for longer.

There are also unpleasant health effects. In 2024, Shinsuke Tanaka, from the Department of Agricultural Economy and Resources of the University of Connecticut, also analyzed Indiana, which makes a good case study due to its steep and relatively recent changes.

“Tanaka found a 27% increase in the number of heart attacks in Indiana for two weeks after it broke out, when the whole state began to practice DST compared to the previous year, while no significant impact on the autumn transition,” University of Connecticut reported. “Tanaka found that the increase in the number of heart attacks has remained relatively consistent from year to year.”

Tanaka has attributed the growth of heart attacks to disturbed sleep routines from clock changes.

The results of increasing energy costs and dangerous medical events certainly mean higher costs from forcing people to change their watches twice a year. But how much? Well, let’s look at the time involved in the offense buttons and the buttons to reset the watches. In 2008, economist William F. Shughart II of the Independent Institute did exactly this.

Forced watch changes cost billions each year

“The Statistics Department of the US Labor Department reports that the average salary of the average American was $ 17.57 in September 2007. Assuming everyone is needed 10 minutes to move all the watches and watch ahead or back, the cost of doing this works at $ 2.93 per person” wrote. He extrapolated the costs along the American population, excluding those living in areas exempt from such chronological Shenanigans. The cost of two clock changes per year, he estimated, was $ 1.7 billion in $ 2008.

In 2013 Mark J. Perry from American Enterprise Institute reviewed the problem And it estimated that inflation and growth of the population increased the annual cost of changing watches to $ 2 billion. A rapid unfolding through the computer inflation computer at the Labor Statistics Office shows that inflation has since increased to over $ 2.5 billion. Also, Perry suggested that more costs could be expected in the unincrutive changes of the program between Americans and over seas business partners, as watches change in some countries in different data than in the US or not at all.

Last year, Chmura Economics and Analytics looked at the cost of summer time In the American metropolitan statistical areas based on “evidence that the change of DST has increased heart attacks (myocardial infarction), strokes, job lesions (in specific industries) and traffic accidents.” The financial company put the clock costs at 672.02 million USD annually. “This includes $ 374.75 million from increased heart attacks, $ 251.53 million from stroke increases, $ 18.35 million from additional work injuries and $ 27.39 million from increased traffic accidents.”

Obviously, there is Wiggle Room when it comes to estimating the total costs of forcing people to reset their watches and programs twice every year. But it is difficult to argue that the clock changes benefit from anyone, except that subset of the population who really wants more daylight in the evening. For most of us, the impact of changing our watches is measured in lost time, expenses and an increased risk for health.

The time of saving the day was a paternalistic government experiment in the country’s social engineering, in less energy use, by playing the watches. Like most government tricks, it does not work as advertising. Let’s get the government out of the business to tell us how to establish our watches.