From the ever-reliable Wikipedia:
DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett. An avid golfer, he disliked cutting short his round at dusk. . . .
. . . On March 19, 1918, the U.S. Congress established DST from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The wartime measure, however, proved unpopular among farmers, and Congress repealed it in 1919. Woodrow Wilson, another avid golfer, vetoed the repeal twice but his second veto was overridden.
. . .
Golf courses, convenience stores, and other businesses benefit from extra afternoon sunlight. In the mid-1980s Clorox (parent of Kingsford Charcoal) and 7-Eleven, which both benefit from DST, provided the primary funding for the Daylight Saving Time Coalition that successfully lobbied to extend U.S. DST, and both Idaho senators voted to extend DST on the basis of fast-food restaurants selling more French fries made from Idaho potatoes.
DST can adversely affect farmers and others whose hours are set by the sun. For example, grain harvesting is best done after dew evaporates, so when field hands arrive and leave earlier in summer their labor is less valuable.
Clock shifts disrupt sleep patterns, and correlate with decreased economic efficiency. Researchers estimated in 2000 that the daylight saving effect implies a one day loss of $31 billion on the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ alone.
. . .
Critics argue that the energy savings of DST are overstated, and that DST can sometimes increase energy consumption and peak demand. Also, the rise of air conditioning calls older energy models into question. In 2000 when parts of Australia began DST in late winter, overall electricity consumption did not decrease, but the morning peak load increased. Currently there is no clear evidence that electricity will be saved by the 2007 U.S. rule change.
Now, what I get from all this is that some goddamn eltist golfers teamed up with a bunch of exploitative retailers to fuck me over this morning for nobody's good but their own. Jerks.
