On 2018-07-13 08:37, Paul Eggert wrote:
On 07/13/2018 05:02 AM, John Wilcock wrote:
It also occurs to me that much of our discussion, and much of the recommendation, is assuming that many European countries would change to an offset that equates to their current summer time (i.e. permanent summertime by any other name), when it is equally possible that they would choose to stay year-round on their current winter time.
There is a staunch lobbying campaign to get people up earlier in the morning, led by groups such as convenience stores (which sell more if there's more evening light), tourist attractions and golf courses (since their customers tend to get up late), and construction firms (the original promoters of DST). In contrast, almost nobody lobbies for "noon" meaning the sun is overhead, as there's no money in that. So it's pretty clear which way the wind is blowing here.
I read that the convenience store lobbyists said that the 2007 extension of DST was money well spent. DST made more sense at a time and in a culture where business and retail hours were shorter, and opening and closing times were more legislated, regulated, common, and consistent. Farmers and farm workers always work mainly when there's daylight available, but store hours are contractual or profit driven, and business hours likewise plus business and customer needs (e.g. markets around the world still trade mainly during local hours e.g. ~9-~4 US ET, UK GMT/BST, EU CET, JP JST, as volumes are higher, prices are lower, less volatile) so DST nowadays is irrelevant, it's the impact on legislation and regulation e.g. government and school hours, and coordination between related jurisdictions, that's important. -- Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada