Stick it where the sun don’t shine | Opinion

I don’t know about you, but I hate changing the clocks. My oven has been showing the wrong time since the Obama era. Now Trump (and the House) want to do the job for us.

On July 14, the House voted 308-117 to keep most of America on daylight saving time all year. Newsweek produced a straightforward map showing what effect this would have. Strangely, it ignited something of a debate through our Fairness Meter.

Seventy-seven percent of readers rated the article fair, but 18 percent said it leaned right. I wonder if one of those was the sole reader rating us from Svalbard, the remote archipelago between Norway and the North Pole that’s either plunged into darkness or bathed in round-the-clock sunshine. In any case, that 18 percent might be on to something. It’s all about the innocuous phrase “usable daylight.”

Permanent daylight saving time takes an hour of winter light from Americans who simply have to be somewhere and gives it to Americans who need to totally, like, do something. Morning sun is useful to medical workers, warehouse workers, roofers and children waiting for school buses. Evening sun is useful to Scottsdale golfers, Westchester lacrosse parents, Brooklyn creative directors enjoying alfresco dining and Washington lobbyists discussing the dignity of work at rooftop receptions.

It’s not as if America hasn’t tried this before. In 1974, Richard Nixon put the country on year-round daylight saving time during the energy crisis. Congress promised lower electricity use, safer roads and less crime. The law also praised the “expanded economic opportunity” created by extending daylight into peak shopping hours. Here’s what happened: Dark mornings forced schedule changes in 44 percent of school districts. Eight children were killed in traffic accidents in Florida. Construction employers objected to sending crews out before sunrise. Estimated electricity savings were—wait for it—0.75 percent in January and February. Congress retreated before the year’s end.

Let’s be honest. Republicans have the more transparent case: later sunsets are good for golf courses, restaurants and retailers. Democrats have to resort to calling the same arrangement “stability,” whatever that means. The left-wing solution would be permanent standard time, later schools, flexible shifts and a shorter working day. Make faceless institutions and corporations adapt to human bodies for once. Naturally, that would require confronting employers, so it’s off the table.

Permanent daylight saving time does not save daylight. It simply redistributes it upward. Another triumph for our bipartisan clock watchers.

Christopher Roberts is Newsweek’s vice president, publishing & subscriber strategy.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.