Then we should have timezones based not just on longitude, but also latitude. So northerly locales can get some sleep in the spring/summer/fall.

> If your issue is when work is scheduled, well businesses set their own hours, not the government.

Ah, someone who doesn't have kids in school/camp/some random activity yet.

We know how this goes in China (one time zone, no daylight savings time). Coming home from the bar in Beijing with the sun showing up at 4 AM was quaint back then, but I'm definitely glad we have DST in the states.

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perilunar a day ago | parent | next [-]

> Then we should have timezones based not just on longitude, but also latitude

Of course. In Australia the southern states do summer time, and the northern states don't.

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captainmuon a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Beijing is a bad example, because all of China actually has Beijing time. It gets confusing in Xinjang, which is 2 hours in the "wrong" timezone. But that doesn't mean that people start work at 8:00 in complete darkness, they just start at 10:00 wall time.

I think the talk of daylight savings time is a distraction, in the end it is arbitrary what the clock says. As a society we need to negotiate when (in celestial time) we want to do certain activities. For example, there are a lot of studies that school starts to early (relative to sunrise and the average bed time of teenagers). But the school starting time has to be decided politically. And reduced working hours or later start times have to be negotiated by trade unions, politics etc.. That's a lot more messy than just shifting wall time.

	▲	seanmcdirmid a day ago \| parent [-]
		Urumuqi actually delays store openings/closings (department stores open at 11AM, for example), so it isn't that bad. Beijing time in Beijing should be accurate, but without DST, the sun rises way too early in the morning. But even then the schedules are still fixed, just the Chinese enjoy their night life, so the sun setting at 6-7PM in the summer isn't really a big deal. Our school schedules are set by weird rules involving when school bus capacity is available. But in general, 9AM is about when school starts (for my son's K-8, its 8AM here for K-5s), or summer camp session starts, or whatever. My schedule is so influenced by my kid these days, it happens to correspond to rush hour, which sucks, because everyone else's schedules are intertwined (so traffic). I WFH and can definitely set my own work hours. Which is why its 12:30 AM and I still haven't gone to bed yet.

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ssl-3 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

How many school kids are coming back from the bars at 4 AM in Beijing?

	▲	seanmcdirmid a day ago \| parent [-]
		That was before I had kids, my point is that I’m familiar with life without DST even at a lower latitude can get weird.