Freedom Line Blog

If, like most Americans, you’re still struggling with the physiological fallout from this weekend’s end to Daylight Saving Time, keep this in mind: you have the federal government to blame.

Though it’s now regarded as something of a natural law, DST was actually a 20th century innovation, not imposed on the U.S. until our entry into World War I, when it was justified as a means of energy conservation. It was then repealed, brought back during World War II, used sporadically after the war, and finally made federal law in 1966. Yet politicians continue meddling with it to this day, changing DST most recently in 2007, when they made it approximately a month longer.

Is there any better example of Washington’s inability to know its limitations? Our elected officials literally think they can legislate what time it is. In reality, Daylight Savings Time is a sort of temporal Keynesianism — lop off a little time here, place it somewhere else, and act as if it’s a net gain. If you want to know how that little bit of alchemy works in the real world, ask any parent who has small children whether the tykes dutifully observed Sunday morning’s time change.

This is one more example of social engineering from the feds that we can do without. When it comes to keeping government out of our bedrooms, let’s start with the alarm clock.