The modern society started with the Industrial Revolution, when the people understood that there are some very tangible benefits when everyone starts working at the same hour, and started building around that. This building included discarding "local time" (an astronomical fact) in favour of standard time (social contract.)
[–] OroPla 20 hours ago
[–] ninalanyon 20 hours ago
When I was working I worked from 08:00 to 16:00 with a half hour break for lunch. But several of my colleagues in the same office worked 07:00 to 15:00. All of us worked with other engineers in countries across the world. My children went to school at 08:30 until 13:30 until they were in senior high school when it was 08:00 to 15:30
The local buses start running at 05:30 and stop at 22:30.
[–] TheOtherHobbes 20 hours ago
Medical emergency cover is 24 hours already. Some factories run 24 hours. So do some transport networks.
There would be huge benefits for commuting because traffic would be spread out.
The practical issues have more to do with noise and energy use, not the "social contract."
[–] maratc 19 hours ago
In any case, you’re talking about a societal change which is much broader than just a clock-setting issue.
[–] nkmnz 13 hours ago
[–] nkmnz 13 hours ago
This must come from an office worker, dropping their child off at school or day care at 8, doing some chores until 9, starting work at 9:30 - or something like that. I suggest you take the bus or the metro once at 5 in the morning. You'll see plenty of people going to work. Maybe it's a local thing, but public services in Germany often start at 6 so that they can finish work before citizens start calling (and so that they can leave early and benefit from everything else still being open).
Also, there are mechanics that fix my car in the middle of the night when it breaks down – but I have to pay a membership fee, otherwise, it would be unaffordable. There are also plenty of doctors willing to work a night shift, but since we have socialist health care in Germany, it's difficult to pay them a premium - so that leaves those who triage by acuteness, not by price.
[–] maratc 10 hours ago
In order to do that I would need to drop the kids at 4:50 at the (closed) doors of the school, and it will end very badly very quickly.
> start at 6 so that they can finish work before citizens start calling
How happy you must be to live in a country where you can (still) simply call your public services.
There used to be a system in my country where there were large doctor offices and you didn't really have your doctor, as you had your clinic. (I'm not talking hospital, but doctor's office.)
It was staffed around the day. Each doctor had a work life balance and you could come in whenever. I'm pretty sure this approach works for most service professions.
School can be transitioned to be purely online. Watch video lectures when you want and take online tests regularly. There is really no point to lock all kids up at school for hours each day if the goal is merely to teach them. People leave school illiterate these days, so it's not like it could get any worse.