Some congress people are proposing to make DST permanent. This is a case of totally missing the point. In ascending order of stupidity, here are the main choices the country has:
- Permanent standard time.
- Adjust time on reasonable dates (see below)
- Permanent DST
- The system we have now
When congress last meddled with it (2005), they set start and end dates which totally do not fit our natural annual rhythms. This makes it generally unpleasant for the first few weeks, and also does measurable harm.
Those first few weeks of unpleasantness are really the offset between the system we have and one that would make sense. Our “biological clock” naturally shifts through the seasons. Just push the change date back about a month and everyone would be ready for it.
A better approach would be to not have DST at all. Businesses, particularly retail, can set their own seasonal hours (as many already do). A lot of business is now electronic and independent of time-of-day. And not switching clocks would reduce a lot of complexity in computer time-keeping.
Why is permanent DST nearly as stupid as what we have now? Because there’s nothing special about the name you give time. The thing that mattered about DST was changing the name on specified dates. If you don’t do that, then you ought to simply name the time following historic and scientific conventions. “Noon” is when the sun is directly overhead. Put another way, there is no difference between permanent DST and permanent standard time, other than giving time the wrong name.