Time Changes and Common Sense

Time Changes and Common Sense was Originally Posted on November 21, 2009 by lavarock

My GEICO magazine says that some studies show that changing to daylight savings time and back to standard time, may increase auto crash potential.

Although the clock changes, our internal circadian rythms don’t and we can become restless and inattentive. This makes sense and more research will be conducted.

Arizona and Hawaii don’t change their clocks.

Can you imagine how many millions of hours have been wasted over the years, changing the clocks forward and backward? How many people have wasted gas driving to church or a store, only to discover they are now an hour early or late?

My suggestion (which makes common sense) is that IF we HAVE to have a difference in our clocks because of the time of daylight, then just move the clocks a half hour ONCE and never touch them again! This seems so easy!

Recently when congress decided to change the date of the beginning of the time change, Microsoft had to issue a time patch for their computers and every computer owner in America had to install the patch just so their clock would be correct. (I use an external website to keep my computer clock correct).

Here in Hawaii, to cut costs, many government agencies and schools decided to take a furlough Friday, where they would close on Fridays. Rather than close on Friday and throw the state into disarray, why could they have not just ended their day an hour or so earlier during the week?

Imagine being in high school again. You have multiple classes during the day and perhaps a 10 minute break every hour to change classrooms. My high school used a one-subject-plan where you took one subject all day (the day was only about 4 to 5 hours) then took the equivalent of gym, etc. Each week you had a test, at the end of 4 weeks you took your midterm and at the 8 week point, you took your final. Then you were off to start your next course. You only had one subject to study and only one homework assignment. The teacher knew exactly how much homework would take you (in our case, 2 hours). You had no excuse that you had 3 courses to work on, etc.

If more high schools had this type of class schedule, you would actually be able to change schools in mid year and not be worried about where the new class was in their schedule. It made so much sense and most students improved their grades considerably.

Calculate how many hours a day are wasted by students changing classes every hour?

Think of income taxes. Many people suggest flat taxes and/or sales taxes be used instead. Certainly any other process has to be easier and more cost effective than the procedure we have now. How many hours do millions of people waste each year collecting, filing and accounting of just their receipts? How many tax lawyers are there? How many years of debates on law changes, deductions, tax rebates and enforcement of tax laws that have grown so complex that even the IRS says that even though they tell you an answer to your tax question, they will not stand by that answer. There has to be a better way.

Sometimes the simple path makes the most sense.