Daylight Savings Time and Consumerism

I had a dream last night, much like I do most nights. But this one was particularly frightening. No, there were no werewolves or zombies or man-eating flying gorilla-tigers to scare me into a 3:00AM heart attack. This was, I realized sadly, more realistic than the typical bizarre and far-fetched nightmare.

In this dream the federal government had declared it illegal for private documents such as bank statements, credit card statements, medical insurance statements, etc, to be mailed to home addresses. They could also no longer be viewed online. From now on everyone must pick up their statements at a local place of business selected by the local government. Huh? Why? Well, their reasoning was that, with identity theft on the rise, this would cut down on ID theft because you would now have to present your ID in person in order to pick up any documents which might contain personal information that identity thieves could use. Seriously inconvenient but I suppose it made some sense.

Dreams are vague so I don't know the specifics but it appeared that documents were released for pick-up on specific days, like once a week on Fridays. Needless to say there were crowds and long lines on the day of release. So here in my dream I find myself standing in a line at a local gift/coffee shop, having stopped by on the way home from work. The whole rush hour traffic crowd was there. There were people everywhere throughout the shop, apparently with the same idea of "quickly" picking up their statements on the way home from a long day at work. I approach the store counter and I request my statements. The woman at the counter takes my name and informs me it will be approximately 30 minutes before they can pull my statements due to the large number of people waiting ahead of me. She gives me a number and tells me to feel free to browse the store or have a seat in the coffee shop while I wait.

I don't really care for this kind of gift shop so I wander over to the coffee shop section. Oh, what the heck. I guess I'll grab myself a $3 latte and have a seat. What else am I going to do for the next half hour?

As I sit there wondering why our government feels this horrible inconvenience and waste of time is the best way to fight ID theft I start to notice something. I have been in this gift/coffee shop before. Even on a busy Saturday there is, at most, 6-8 people here at any one time. This weekday evening, however, there are at least 50 people filling all the tables in the coffee shop section and cramming the aisles of the gift shop area, trying to occupy themselves while they dutifully wait for their statements, doing their part to fight ID theft crime. There are long lines at the cash registers and nearly everyone at the tables has a beverage, and many have packages from the gift shops by their sides as well.

At that point it dawned on me that this wasn't about ID theft at all. It was about consumerism and money. I pictured shops like this all around the country, millions of people all having to go into retail stores and wait for possibly hours to collect their statements. And what would they do to occupy their time? Shop. What else could they do? Think of the millions of dollars generated across the country by people stuck in shops, waiting, who might otherwise be home cooking dinner or watching TV. What a perfect government plan to encourage consumer spending! Consumer confidence is down so how can we force them to spend more time in stores and spend more money despite it? Surely if they're forced to sit in a shop they're end up buying something. Even if it's just a $3 latte or a $5 trinket, multiply that by millions of people across the country and that's a lot of money!

So it wasn't about ID theft at all. No, the government didn't have our best interest at heart at all. (There's a shocker, eh?) It was all about the Almighty Dollar and the economic growth.

Now, I'm not the type who is into conspiracy theory so this dream struck me as odd. But at the same time, it doesn't strike me as odd that the government would plan such a scheme to manipulate the economy. I've never doubted the government lies. (I know people who believe our government would never lie to us and that's always completely baffled me.) So, this dream actually made some scary sense.

So you're probably wondering, what has this to do with Daylight Savings Time? Well, this year, as you know, DST was expanded. DST has always annoyed me but it annoyed me more than ever this year because it came so early I was getting up in the dark. There are a lot of theories out there as to why we observe DST but I think the most widespread theory is that it saves energy. But pushing it so early into the year that I'm getting up in the dark makes no sense. All I'm doing is shifting my energy consumption from evening to morning. What good is that going to do? So I went online and did some research, trying to console myself by finding a reason for having to get up an hour earlier in the dark. Disappointingly, I found out there are actual studies showing that DST does absolutely nothing to save energy partly because, as I said, we're just shifting energy consumption from evening to morning.

What other reasons, then, could there be to justify this despised semi-annual event? There are other theories such as helping farmers, cutting crime, reducing traffic accidents, etc. But none of those arguments is very convincing. One theory does make sense, however, especially after my dream. This one theory is that DST increases consumer spending. How so? Well, the reasoning is, if it's bright, warm, and sunny after you get off work you are more likely to go out to eat or shop. If it's cold and dark you just want to get home and get warm and comfy. It makes sense because it's often true for me. If it's cold, dark, and miserable out I am less likely to want to stop anywhere on the way home from work.

One other reason I'm becoming convinced this is the real reason behind DST is that President Bush supports it. Conserving energy helps the environment and I know Bush is never about helping the environment. (How long did he deny Global Warminng when the majority had accepted it?) So, obviously, if Bush is for DST it is not about saving energy. If he supports it thne it makes much more sense that it's about consumerism and economic growth.

Think about that the next time you stop to shop on the way home from work this spring.