The Media Awareness Project
Capitalism Causes Dst
| Date: 10/22/1998
Source: NewTimes (CA) Author: Anne York | |||||||||||||||||
Daylight-saving time is not, as claimed by Bill Horton ("It's Time for a Change," New Times Oct. 8), the stupidest law on America's books - this award should likely be given to the draconian drug laws, especially against marijuana use. | |||||||||||||||||
Daylight-saving time began during World War II - something about productivity and saving energy. After the war, it was noted that people tend to do more things - that is, spend more money - during the extra hours of daylight. So it was extended into peacetime. | |||||||||||||||||
During the Reagan years, daylight-saving time was extended to its maximum practical limits, where it is now. This was done for purely economic reasons. Daylight-saving time is no more than an effort to wring every last cent out of your pocket. | |||||||||||||||||
It makes no difference that the biannual change causes a week or so or irritability in the general population with our self-imposed jet lag or makes few of us late or early or even interferes with man's biological clock, causing not only irritability but symptoms ranging from psychological disorientation to death in rare cases. But what does the government care, as long as we keep consuming? | |||||||||||||||||
How does it feel to be treated as a pawn on the big Monopoly board of American life? | |||||||||||||||||
Anne York Atascadero | |||||||||||||||||
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