“Republicans are once again attempting to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, with President Donald Trump promising to lead the push to end the longstanding American practice of switching clocks twice a year.”
Good, please do this. It’s so fucking unnecessary to change the clock, and it’s a nonpartisan issue. I bet someone could do a deep analysis of how much it costs us each year during that hour time change, people showing up late, missing appointments, traffic patterns, etc.
🕒 The Real Cost of “Springing Forward”
Changing the clocks isn’t just annoying—it is a massive, self-inflicted tax on our health, safety, and economy. Here is what that one hour of lost sleep actually costs us every year:
- 💸 The Direct Economic Hit: Economic analysis pegs the immediate cost of the spring transition at over 672 million dollars in lost productivity, wages, and medical costs.
- 📉 The Productivity Crash: Workplace productivity drops by roughly 20% on the Monday following the time change.
- 🚗 Danger on the Roads: Fatal car accidents spike by 6% during the first workweek of Daylight Saving Time, as millions of sleep-deprived commuters are suddenly forced back into driving in pitch-black morning conditions.
- 🏥 Severe Health Spikes: Heart attacks increase by 24% on the Monday after the shift. Workplace injuries jump by 5.7%, and because workers are fatigued, those injuries tend to be far more severe—resulting in 67.6% more days lost from work.
- 💡 The “Energy Saving” Myth: The original excuse for DST was to save energy, but modern studies show the actual global savings are a microscopic 0.3%. In fact, many regions see energy bills go up because of increased morning heating and extended evening air conditioning.
The Bottom Line: We are tanking our health, risking lives on the road, and bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars every single year—all to chase a century-old lighting rule that doesn’t even save energy anymore.
The year is 2026, and the US government bickers over what time it is and minimum wage is less than eight dollars an hour and corporations are people and JUST END IT
As someone who emigrated from the US to a more reasonable country, I really hate having to remember the time of year to calculate the time difference when I need to contact people in the US.
Even though permanent DST makes more sense, I’d take either.
The real answer is, the world should just run on UTC. No timezones. No confusion. When it says 12:00 UTC, it’s the same time everywhere on the planet, regardless of the sun being up or not.
This is only a good idea when you don’t think about it.
That’s like all my ideas. What’s that mean for me?
Twice a year the entire country collectively agrees the clock change is annoying, unhealthy, and pointless, and then somehow we still keep doing it.
I recall this had gained momentum under Biden but ultimately failed for what I can only perceive as the GOP not wanting that W to happen under the Dems.
From what I understand parents were freaking out about having their kids outside in the dark either before or after school, I don’t remember which. That’s the only argument against it I think I’ve ever heard.
Kids waiting for the bus in the dark is the most legitimate concern when it comes to this issue.
I used to wait at the bus stop in the winter at 6am when it was still pitch black out.
It would be light before the bus got there and dark again within two hours of getting home.
This was in Minneapolis, but I lived in the south side while going to a specialized program at North High, the other side of the city, so it wasn’t typical.
I mean you get screwed on one side of the equation anyway just because of sunlight hours shortening by the season. Hell, Alaskans have months without meaningful sunlight. And then months with basically 24h sunlight. Unless jobs were to adjust their hours with the seasons theres no way not to get screwed at some point.
There’s an appreciable increase in cardiovascular events and car accidents when we lose an hour. For that reason alone we should stop the stupid clock changing.
Anywhere in the north quarter of the continental US already has kids waiting for the bus in the dark, regardless of DST. It’s a poor argument from the get go
Ah, North High. I played a bunch of flash games and watched the back half of the Naruto Chuunin Exams arc in the media center there since Cartoon Network’s website wasn’t blocked for some reason. Good times.
So just move it 30 minutes one last time and call it good.
So then it would be say 4pm on the East Coast of the US and something 30 in every other country? That would make things more confusing for everyone. The rest of the world would have to agree to this and that ain’t happening.
The rest of the world doesn’t need to agree.
Half hour time zones exist but year aren’t common
Every place except Afghanistan.
Every health and safety expert who isn’t the Chamber of Commerce hoping for longer shopping hours agrees that permenant Standard Time would be superior and that permenant DST would be, in fact, deadly.
Also we did permenant DST and hated it. We just hated it so much we abolished it immediately and promptly forgot we ever tried it.
Permanent DST is equivalent to permanent standard time with business hours moved an hour earlier. I assume that standard business hours were originally set by businesses to maximize profits—so if permanent earlier hours are better for business than permanent standard hours, why didn’t businesses set earlier hours to begin with?
The optimum may shift over time.
There’s nothing preventing businesses from changing their hours over time as well (and in the long run, I suspect they’ll eventually settle on the same physical hours regardless of whether we choose standard time or permanent DST).
Fetterman or some other idiot from a backwater will kill it.
So glad I’m self employed, almost retired, and wake up with the sun.
If this goes through, we’re still on daylight time in the winter, right? Not standard time in the summer? Seasonal-affective is about a son of a bitch.
Aw dammit, he’s going to do ONE thing I would appreciate.
I also appreciate getting rid of the penny
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It’s a good idea so I’m sure the republicans that are introducing will then vote against it once it’s in danger of actually passing
I like the time change. There, I said it.
After years and years of this debate, I’m starting to feel like the time change is just the best compromise. Because we’re never going to satisfy the people that for some reason don’t understand that we can just start things at a different time.
…In the US"
In BC, Canada, it became permanent this year. Originally, the entire west coast of North America was supposed to switch at the same time. All the US states backed out.
I don’t think the US states backed out, they’re just stuck waiting for the legal right to switch. BC got tired of waiting for them and decided to switch on its own, as being deeply coupled with those states is now less desirable.
Yet in the rest of the world, no such good news (for the most part)
I fell like the Republicans have been doing this since 2002, and somehow can’t get it passed even when they own 100% of the federal government.
It’s as if they want to be able to get elected on useless causes and never implement them because they want to get elected on useless causes (repeat, no exit case).
