Ross: Don’t buy into daylight saving time manipulation
Mar 11, 2019, 6:47 AM
(File photo)
Welcome back to daylight saving time, everybody. The government’s way of making sure all of us experience jet lag whether we fly or not. For the next few days, we get to wake up after we get to work. Which is very awkward for those of us in broadcasting.
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“But Dave,” you say, “We get that extra hour of sleep in November!”
Ha! That’s part of the manipulation — buttering us up just before election day.
Of course, we’ll acclimate. Studies show that many people can establish a new habit after only two months. And if you stick with it for eight months, anybody can establish a new habit. But guess what happens in eight months? We change the clocks again.
Which is why many states are ready to make this the last time that happens, and it’s about time they did. It’s hard enough getting drivers to pay attention to the road as it is without adding sleep deprivation.
Last October, I tried to argue that we should get to keep the extra hour from daylight saving time. But as you can see it didn’t work. The government took it anyway.
So now I’m saying let them have it. Auction it off! Raise a little money — an hour of time from 328 million Americans at $25 dollars an hour. That’s $8.2 billion dollars. That could reduce the national debt by about 4/100ths of a percent.
Never mind.