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How to Fix Daylight Saving Time

2022-03-18 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:38 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

After the US Senate unanimously voted to stop changing the clocks, Hank pushes back on people who found ways to be angry about it, weighs the small evidence for permanent daylight versus standard time, and argues that perfect is subjective but better is clear, so lawmakers should just pick one.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Bedtime frustration after the clock change; the Senate unanimously agrees to stop changing clocks

  • ★★ Hank was frustrated this week (week of 14 March 2022) by the clock change: putting his son to bed an hour before the boy thought it was bedtime, and hearing he wasn't sleepy. — 00:00:00 · Orin Green
  • ★ Hank jokes that complaining together on Twitter about the clock change is a biannual tradition. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Hank says 100% of the US Senate, Democrat and Republican, agreed to stop changing the clocks. — 00:00:25
  • ★★ Hank says the Senate vote is not the full process of a bill becoming law, but its unanimity suggests the change might very well actually happen. (hedged) — 00:00:25

00:00:52 — First complaint: the Senate only does easy things; the problem might be in your chair

  • ★★ Hank says the most common complaint was that the Senate can do easy, free things but not contentious, complicated, expensive ones. — 00:00:52
  • ★★★ Hank would take universal health care over not changing the clocks, but that is not the choice: the choice is whether to do this easy, free thing everyone wants. — 00:00:52
  • ★★★ Hank says that if your response to bipartisan legislation that will improve your life is to find a way to be angry, the problem may be you, not Congress. (playful) — 00:01:22 · United States Congress
  • ★★ Hank says the clocks could stay on standard or on daylight time; Congress wants daylight time and many people want standard time. — 00:01:22 · United States Congress

00:01:37 — Second complaint: permanent daylight versus standard time, and the small effects on both sides

  • ★ Hank is shocked that people found a way to argue about this. (playful) — 00:01:51
  • ★★★ Hank clarifies that the Senate's change keeps daylight saving time all year, meaning later sunrises and later sunsets. — 00:01:51
  • ★★ Hank reports one objection: parents don't want children waiting at the bus stop in the dark, where they might be kidnapped or hit by a car. — 00:01:51
  • ★★ Hank reports a second objection: permanent daylight time is anti-science, since the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms said more morning light is better than more evening light. — 00:01:51
  • ★★★ Hank looked at the papers: there seem to be very small but detectable differences in health outcomes for people in the far west of time zones, with later sunrises and sunsets. (hedged) — 00:02:20
  • ★★★ Hank says research also shows later sunsets mean kids get more exercise and fewer pedestrians die, since people drive mostly after work. — 00:02:20
  • ★ Hank says later sunsets also have an effect on crime. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ Hank says the effects on exercise, pedestrian deaths and crime are all really small. — 00:02:20

00:02:49 — Perfect is subjective, better is clear: stop the war on the clocks

  • ★★ Hank says that when asked, people say they would rather have the extra hour of daylight in the evening, when they are more likely to use it. — 00:02:49
  • ★★★ Hank says whether permanent daylight time or none is better is unclear and complex, so he has decided not to care at all which way it goes. (playful) — 00:02:49

  • ★★★ Hank says perfect is subjective and different for everyone, so no choice will be perfect for all; but here better is very clear. — 00:02:49

    “while perfect is subjective, in this case, better is very clear.”

  • ★★ Hank calls for an end to the war on the clocks: just do whatever lawmakers will agree on. (playful) — 00:03:19

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says we only talk about the drawbacks of what we are doing, so we rarely think about the drawbacks of the alternatives. — video description
  • ★ The description says the only way to fix this is if enough people don't care. (playful) — video description

Humor (significant)

  • The Senate agrees changing clocks makes everyone sleepy, and Hank riffs on the Hulk line. — 00:00:25

    “you wouldn't like me when I'm sleepy”

  • People angry that the Senate unanimously passed an easy fix that improves their lives. — 00:01:22

    “I think maybe the problem isn't in the Congress, it might be in your chair.”

  • Hank wonders how anyone found a way to argue about stopping the clock change, then acts out the outrage. — 00:01:51

    “Let's just make the change. Oh my God, no!”

  • After weighing the evidence on permanent daylight versus standard time. — 00:02:49

    “And I have decided to do a wildly controversial thing and not care at all about which way we go.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: daylight saving time · United States Senate

Also: Orin Green · Society for Research on Biological Rhythms · United States Congress · universal health care

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