Introduction
This article is going to be a bit off topic from the normal postings on this blog, but given the impending beginning of Daylight Savings Time (DST) and recent action by the Florida legislature, I feel that it’s important to help sound the alarm on DST. I hope to help clear up some of the common misconceptions, raise awareness of the costs, and even propose a way to fight back against this long-running scam.
A Brief History of Daylight Savings Time
That’s right – a scam. First though, a little history to help give some perspective to the problem. Daylight savings time was originally proposed by “New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson and British builder William Willett … in 1895”1. Hudson and Willett’s idea was then, promptly and rightfully, ignored by the entire world. Unfortunately, after over a decade on the shelf, the idea was reintroduced and implemented in parts of Ontario, Canada. Germany and Austria followed with the first nationalized DST programs in 19162. These DST programs were ostensibly an effort to conserve fuel for the war effort (more on that in a moment) and were widely accepted by the general population. They also quickly spread to the rest of Europe and North America3. In the U.S. DST rules were further codified in the Uniform Time Act4 of 1966 and the Energy Policy Act of 20055.
Misleading From the Start
A popular misconception about DST is that it benefits farmers in some way. It is also well established that this is completely false6. In fact, farmers, who are among the more educated members of the workforce (25% hold college degrees vs. 30% for the general population)7, were the most outspoken critics of DST6. Many other popular myths about DST persist. Perhaps you may have heard that it offers energy usage benefits, prevents traffic accidents, provides a boost in happiness, benefits business, or one of many other pieces of nonsense. In order to understand who is truly benefiting from widespread use of DST it is helpful to ask who benefits from these oft-repeated lies.
Daylight Savings Time Is Money in the Bank (For the Government)
On its face DST seems like a straight-forward proposition. You give the government one hour of your life each Spring, they hold it, and then return it to you in the Fall. For you personally there would appear to be nothing gained and nothing lost. In fact, as described in the previous section, the government’s safe-keeping of your hour purportedly provides some benefit for the greater good of the nation.
To help better understand what is going on behind the scenes it is useful to use an analogy. Let’s reexamine the situation, but rather than thinking of DST as “one hour”, let’s think of it as “one dollar”. Imagine that Uncle Sam comes to your house each Spring and asks you to allow him to hold on to one dollar while also promising to return that same dollar to you each Fall. He also explains that in the meantime your dollar will be used to help save the manatees, children, or whatever cause is hot at the moment. Being a civic minded person you happily agree and hand over your dollar. Eight months later it is returned to you.
The problem here, is that you personally DID lose out in the transaction with Uncle Sam without this personal loss ever being disclosed to you. Providing a dollar to Uncle Sam comes with a heavy opportunity cost8 that you likely didn’t consider. Perhaps you could have used that dollar to buy a taco. Perhaps you could have ridden the bus rather than walking. Perhaps you are a future oriented individual who would have invested that dollar in a savings account. If you are the latter, then depositing the dollar in a typical savings account, even with today’s crummy 1% interest rates, would mean that come fall you would have received back more than one dollar.
Simple interest is calculated by multiplying the amount of the investment, or principal (P), by the interest rate (r), by the the period of time (t) over which the investment is made9.
P = $1
r = 1% = .01
t = 8 months = 0.67 years
P * r * t = $1 * .01 * 0.67 = $0.0067
Yes, you’ve read that right. For each dollar given to Uncle Sam in our thought experiment, our civic minded individual is giving up just over half a penny. While 0.67 cents may not sound like a lot of money, consider that there are 327 million people in the US10. Since a dollar is being collected from each of these people and Uncle Sam is the one depositing them in the bank, that means he can collect over 2 million dollars in interest before having to return those borrowed dollars in the Fall11.
To return to the topic at hand, Daylight Savings Time functions in exactly the the same way. When we “Spring Ahead” each March, we are giving up one hour. The government holds these hours and dutifully returns them each November when the clocks “Fall Back”. What isn’t widely shared is the fact that the interest that is skimmed off of each of these 327, 000, 000 hours adds up to 2,190,900 hours, or nearly 250 years, of extra time that the government can use in any way it chooses each year.
Daylight Savings Time’s True Beneficiary
As discussed above there are innumerable cover stories that have been widely circulated to conceal the true reason for using DST. The original justification used by Germany and Austria, that it provided energy savings to aid the war effort, is actually fairly close to the truth. The extra person-hours those governments collected from their citizenry were likely devoted to aiding their militaries. However, as WWI drew to a close12, leaders saw the many benefits that could be gained with extra time available to them through DST even during a peaceful period. Falsehoods offering cover for the continuation of DST spread widely. Notably, farmers were frequently used as scapegoats since the public already had a strong association between them and DST due to their earlier vocal opposition.
In the United States the Uniform Time Act of 1966, among other things, required all states except Arizona and Hawaii, to observe DST13. 2005 saw a further time grab by the feds as it extended the length of DST by nearly a month. Just this month the Florida legislature passed a law that would allow the state to run on DST permanently14. It boggles the mind to think that Floridians may soon be asked to give up not only the interest on that time in perpetuity, but also the hour that Uncle Sam will be asking for this weekend (the principal). It seems almost unthinkable that Tallahassee isn’t overrun with protesters on this issue. With so many other political issues on people’s minds it seems that the legislature has taken this opportunity make an attempt at sneaking this bill through under the radar.
A Call to (In)Action
Of course, there is a simple and effective way to keep the government from profiting off of your time. One needs simply to not participate in this weekend’s unjust time grab. That’s right, in this case inaction is the most effective action you can take. Simply don’t skip ahead an hour on Sunday morning. While it may be slightly confusing to be an hour behind your neighbors it isn’t an insurmountable challenge. In fact, every day the world operates on 24 different time zones with little to no confusion. At this very moment there is an hour difference between Chicago and New York to no ill effect.
In the long run there are only benefits to keeping your hour from the clutches of the government. Most notably that the interest earned on that time is now yours to do with as you please.
Footnotes
1“The History of Daylight Saving Time.” Timeanddate.com, www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/history.html.
2Doane, Doris Chase. Time changes in Canada and Mexico. American Federation of Astrologers, 1972.
3History & info – Daylight Saving Time, early adoption, U.S. law, www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/e.html.
4Uniform Time Act. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-80/pdf/STATUTE-80-Pg107.pdf.
5Energy Policy Act of 2005. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ58/html/PLAW-109publ58.htm.
6Feltman, Rachel. “5 myths about daylight saving time.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 Mar. 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-daylight-saving-time/2015/03/06/970092d4-c2c1-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html.
7Edward Ortiz. “New generation of young farmers increasingly college educated, but indebted.” Sacbee, The Sacramento Bee, www.sacbee.com/news/business/article31912833.html.
8Staff, Investopedia. “Opportunity Cost.” Investopedia, 9 Sept. 2017, www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp.
9Pritchard, Justin. “Formulas and Examples to Calculate Interest on Savings.” The Balance, www.thebalance.com/calculate-interest-on-savings-315753.
10“U.S. and World Population Clock Tell us what you think.” Population Clock, www.census.gov/popclock/.
11“Calculator”. calc.exe.
12How did World War I start and end?, www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/history/how-did-world-war-i-start-and-end.
13Author’s Note: The reasons for Hawaii and Arizona’s exclusion could warrant further scrutiny.
14Astor, Maggie. “Permanent Daylight Saving Time? Florida Says Yes, but Its Not So Simple.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/us/daylight-saving-time-florida.html.