Since the passage of the Energy Security Act of 2005, which extended daylight saving time (DST) by four weeks—to eight months of the year—DST has become more standard than...standard time. According to the legislation’s co-sponsors, Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., the daylight saving time extension is supposed to significantly reduce energy usage, as evening sunlight replaces power-generated electricity an additional hour each day.
Unfortunately, this dramatic cut in energy use could very well be illusory, while the costs of daylight saving time are very real...
Since clocks must be changed twice every year, this back-of-the-envelope calculation must be doubled, to approximately $1.7 billion annually.
Perhaps daylight saving time promotes sales of charcoal briquettes and gas grills, but that would hardly justify the $1.7 billion or more in opportunity costs we bear, particularly if there are no significant offsetting energy savings.
So why is it, exactly, that we allow the government to tell us what time it is?
read the entire essay
Opportunity costs are important. Yet most of us change our clocks while doing other things. Changing alarm clock while setting it; loss of maybe 5 seconds, changing clock in car; again maybe 5 seconds. Most electronic devices do it automatically; TV, VCR, DVD, computer, etc. I changed my microwave, coffee maker, and stove while standing in the kitchen cooking, so no lost time.
No comments:
Post a Comment