Illogical?

I get a kick out of reading the Opinion Section of the South Bend Tribune and even the State News sometimes. It just amazes me that my thinking is quite often different from the contributors. The Tribune, in particular, has quite a few regulars. It makes me wonder if these same people actually contribute to society rather than bitch about it constantly in the Opinion Section. For this post, I am highlighting the gem of the day from William Spier of South Bend.

Illogical

On Jan. 1, 2005, there were only three states that were not on daylight-savings time, Arizona, Hawaii, and Indiana. The Feb. 2 edition of the Arizona Republic reported that metropolitan Phoenix had led all of our nation’s metropolitan regions last year by adding 83,200 jobs to its economy. Metropolitan Phoenix was only the 14th most populous metropolitan region after the last census. The state of Arizona also added 200,000 new residents in the
first six months of 2005.

If “Our Man Mitch” had done an adequate research on daylight-saving time before he sold the House and Senate that it was needed to increase jobs in Indiana, he would have recognized that Arizona has made outstanding growth without it...

...And then he continues with a bitch out about state contracts and the toll road.

What is his argument when he brings up daylight-savings time? Is he saying that Indiana should have stayed with EST because the state had an opportunity to emulate Arizona? Is he pointing out that job creation (which was argued by Gov. Daniels) is unrelated to EST? I think his point is the latter. But assuming that job creation or economic growth is unrelated to using daylight-savings time, why would he bring up the case of Phoenix? I would agree that job creation is unrelated to the use of daylight-savings. That’s why I have a problem with him using the case of Arizona. If standard time was helpful for growth, why didn’t Indiana or Hawaii enjoy the same benefits that Arizona did? It also occurs to me that the growth of Arizona is not limited to that state. The entire Southwestern United States is enjoying rapid growth and those are including states that use daylight savings.

Mr. Spier’s letter could have been simplified to say, “Gov. Daniels argument that joining daylight-savings in order to create jobs is weak because the connection between the two is also weak.”