The Cost of Early Daylight Savings Time

Daylight savings time is a great thing. I love the fact that I can pick up my kid from preschool at 6:00PM and still be able to play with him outside for a couple of hours. The benefits of daylight savings time are many, and I don't know too many people that object to the concept. However, what I do object to is the fact that this year DST came almost a month early.

I love sunlight as much as the next guy, but the amount of money and effort that went into shifting to DST early this year is crazy. For example, in my small office, I received at least three separate e-mails from out IT department informing the team how to download and install patches to adjust the clocks on both Outlook and XP. I also received a call from AT&T, my cellular operator, explaining how I should download and install a patch to adjust my smart phone. On top of that, I heard on the radio that many hotels use automated systems to send wake-up calls to their guests, and that such systems, if not updated in time, would wake guests an hour late. Think how much it must have cost us collectively for all these changes to be made. That's not even counting the cost of all the missed meetings, missed flights (for lack of wake-up calls) and frayed nerves that will be suffered in the next few days.

If this is the last time DST is changed, so be it. As I said, I like the extra month of evening sunlight, but we all know that Congress cannot let things be, so I say to our big wigs in D.C.: pick a date and stick with it.

Slightly off topic, but I thought this needed to be said. Tomorrow we are back to good ol' personal finance.