# Dst!

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [October 29, 2009, 9:26am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760 "2009-10-29T09:26:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![meanjoe75fan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/meanjoe75fan/32/552_2.png) [@meanjoe75fan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/meanjoe75fan)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/21 "2009-10-30T18:47:57Z")

</div>

I don’t like the lemming-like nature of DST and what it says about human behavior.

I mean, DST is quite popular and seems to be expanded evey year. Now, all DST _really does_ is “call” 8AM 9AM, and so on. So, if people want to start work earlier, and finish earlier, why not have individual businesses agree that the “typical” workday (whatever that is), is now 8-to-4, instead of 9-to-5?

But the opinion is, “that’ll never work…too impractical.” but what happens instead is that gov’t institutes DST, which has the exact same effect as what I mentioned (only being a bit less intellectually honest), and all the lemmings comply without a peep of protest regarding “practicality.”

It says something sad about human nature that (apparantly) people want to move their working hours ahead one hour, but are utterly incapable of accomplishing this until the gov’t steps in and decrees…“Hey, remember 12 noon? Well, now it’s ‘officially’ 1PM. Good day, and remember to take your SOMA pills.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cigroller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@cigroller](https://community.cartalk.com/u/cigroller)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/22 "2009-10-30T18:51:14Z")

</div>

Its also really big with golf courses.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kmccune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/kmccune/32/1237_2.png) [@kmccune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/kmccune)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/23 "2009-10-30T21:40:47Z")

</div>

I heard that!-Kevin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cigroller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@cigroller](https://community.cartalk.com/u/cigroller)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/24 "2009-10-31T01:52:30Z")

</div>

I guess I “heard” it - but it makes no sense whatsoever. About 300 million people in the US. Millions of businesses. 6+ billion people the world over. A huge & complex global political economy that works as an organized system. Transport schedules. School & business schedules. Hell, even the measly 30,000+ people involved in the organization I work in every day. And all of this will be coordinated by individuals each making their own decisions about when to come and go and do? And the only issue is when people want to go to work? And the fact that individuals don’t make these decisions themselves makes “the government” some big bad guy and people a bunch of morons? Just how small is the tiny little world you live & work in?

In the West (globally speaking) clock time started with the first factory style production and only accelerated with industrialization. Coordinated clock time fundamentally makes the world go 'round. None of that means that DST is a good or a bad idea. But your story about it is truly insane.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![meanjoe75fan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/meanjoe75fan/32/552_2.png) [@meanjoe75fan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/meanjoe75fan)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/25 "2009-10-31T02:48:09Z")

</div>

Whoa, is somebody off their meds?

The point is, apparently people want to start and finish work an hour earlier, at least the majority of the year. The straightforward way to do this is just change the typical work shift, but this is never done…as it is “unfeasible.”

Instead, the gov’t just “decrees” 8AM to be 9, etc…and everybody falls in line. That sort of passivity makes one wonder what else can be decreed…

Oh, BTW, the nature of time as we know it (variety of “time zones,” each 1 hr. apart) is a product of the railroads, not industry. Prior to that, each town had it’s own “time,” based on when the sun was directly overhead, and might be a few minutes different from towns to the east/west. Of course, that made RR schedules hard, so…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kmccune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/kmccune/32/1237_2.png) [@kmccune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/kmccune)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/26 "2009-10-31T11:38:19Z")

</div>

Interesting,you are right the government does not need to micro manage our lives-Kevin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cigroller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@cigroller](https://community.cartalk.com/u/cigroller)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/27 "2009-10-31T13:33:48Z")

</div>

Ok - you’re still on this whole other planet.

First, DST is not about when “people” (whoever they are) want to start & finish work. But even if it was, perhaps it would make more sense to say that it isn’t a govt “decree” - maybe instead it would be the govt assisting people in coordinating getting what they want. No matter, since DST has nothing to do with when people want to go to work. That assumption is just nuts - along with the assumption that people - in contemporary, industrialized nations - can just go along ad libbing time according to their own wishes.

Yes, I know the story of the RRs and time - it is very strange that you would say “the railroads, not industry” since the railroads lie at the heart of industrialization. The RRs are fully wrapped up in the heart of the industrial age and integral to sets of systems that demand integrated clock time. You went on to give the reasoning that - given how we live - time needs a source of central, standardized coordination - i.e. the RRs couldn’t operate on sun time.

Once again, this has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not DST is a good idea or not. The coordination of time is not some abuse of power by the state in the face of a passive public. I can think of all sorts of reasons to criticize states and their passive publics - but the coordination of time isn’t one of them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kmccune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/kmccune/32/1237_2.png) [@kmccune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/kmccune)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/28 "2009-10-31T16:26:28Z")

</div>

Did he really imply this?I always maintained if you want more time in the daylight hours,get up early- no other natural systems recognize this(dont think the military abides by DST either)-Kevin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![meaneyedcatz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/meaneyedcatz/32/692_2.png) [@meaneyedcatz](https://community.cartalk.com/u/meaneyedcatz)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/29 "2009-10-31T21:01:31Z")

</div>

The old country singer Grandpa Jones had a humorous song about DST.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DoctorPinto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b19c9b/32.png) [@DoctorPinto](https://community.cartalk.com/u/DoctorPinto)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/30 "2009-11-02T14:13:40Z")

</div>

DST should be dumped along with neckties and high heel shoes. My DST list at home is to reset the clocks on:

kitchen wall  
microwave  
stove  
bedroom clocks (2)  
TV  
VCR (still have one)  
shop  
garage  
4 cars  
relative’s glucose meter  
relative’s watch  
my pedometer

At work I reset the time in:

office clock  
building thermostat  
time clock  
shop clock  
dispatch clock  
office camera system  
shop camera system  
FAX machine  
phone system

I’m sure there are more. I’ll stumble into them during the next month or so. This is such a waste of time! It shouldn’t be that difficult to repeal DST.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kmccune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/kmccune/32/1237_2.png) [@kmccune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/kmccune)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/31 "2009-11-03T00:46:50Z")

</div>

An’ I heard dat!-Kevin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Need\_A\_Horse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f6c823/32.png) [@Need\_A\_Horse](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Need_A_Horse)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/32 "2009-11-11T04:42:26Z")

</div>

Go for it Kevin. Call it KST.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kmccune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/kmccune/32/1237_2.png) [@kmccune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/kmccune)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 10:30am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/33 "2009-11-11T10:30:52Z")

</div>

There is a “End DST site”-Kevin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![irlandes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5e925/32.png) [@irlandes](https://community.cartalk.com/u/irlandes)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/34 "2009-11-14T01:18:29Z")

</div>

Interesting about the railroads and 12 noon being when the sun is straight up. I have always thought it was the British Navy which decreed that local time anywhere on the planet, which they used to pretty much own, heh, heh, be set by the high point of the sun there. This was before railroads existed.

There is a movement, which I view pretty much a waste of time, though I happen to think it’s a great idea, to put the whole planet on Zulu time, aka as GMT. That way everyone would know exactly when something was going to happen, or when it did happen. Under our current system, in international business, it can be confusing not only to know what time something is supposed to happen, but which day it is there.

It will not happen. We in the US can’t even adapt the metric system universally.

By the way, in the 70’s an old-timer told me when they first came out with DST, an older woman called the radio station and said she was against it, because her house plants needed all the sun they could get. She was not joking.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kmccune](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/kmccune/32/1237_2.png) [@kmccune](https://community.cartalk.com/u/kmccune)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 11:19am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760/35 "2009-11-14T11:19:30Z")

</div>

We could certainly do better,then what we currently experience-Kevin

[Previous page](https://community.cartalk.com/t/dst/38760.md?page=1)
