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Should we have daylight saving time?
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Daylight saving time is outdated

Daylight saving time was created for the 20th century and should be left in that era.
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Context

The concept of Daylight Saving Time was originally proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. Flash forward over a hundred years and Europe and the United States finally adopted the concept in 1916 and 1918 (respectively) during the First World War.[1] Though some people believe it was originally implemented for agrarian reasons (more sunlight for farmers), it was actually adopted to reduce energy and help with load smoothing.

The Argument

When adopted in the early 20th century, Daylight Saving Time successfully reduced energy consumption and continued to do so for several decades. Now, over a century later, the concept isn't relevant. For most of the 1900s, people did not rely on energy and electricity. Today, however, very few people would be able to manage without energy. Back in the day, the addition or retraction of an hour would allow people to use natural light and spend more time outdoors. Nowadays people are going to use electricity even during the day. They're going to stay up as late as they like (thus using energy), and most people stay indoors to watch TV rather than spend time outside. In fact, a study shows that on average, children are only spending 4 hours outside a week.[2] The days of society relying on sunlight for activities and everyday life is gone and the concept of Daylight Saving Time should go with it.

Counter arguments

Even though Daylight Saving Time doesn't save as much energy as it used to, it still helps out.

Premises

[P1] Daylight Saving Time successfully reduced energy usage in the 20th century. [P2] Daylight Saving Time no longer reduces a significant amount of energy. [P3] We should no longer have Daylight Saving Time.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Reducing a little bit of energy usage is better than reducing no energy usage at all.

References

  1. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/daylight-saving-time-dont-blame-ben-franklin-but-make-it-stop
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/27/children-spend-only-half-the-time-playing-outside-as-their-parents-did
This page was last edited on Friday, 17 Apr 2020 at 11:16 UTC

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