A Word on Daylight Savings Time

I grew up without Daylight Savings Time. Between 1967 and 2006, most Indiana counties did not observe DST. (I was born in 1976 and left the Hoosier State in 2000.) As such, I've never understood the practice of turning forward or back one's clocks. Frankly, it's a waste of time.

That said, I've appreciated the extra daylight since we sprang forward two weeks ago. My question is: Why don't we just stick with this time? Why do we keep going back and forth? Why doesn't the United States, and possibly the international community, just shift all the time zones so that everyone always has an extra hour of daylight and no one ever has to change a clock? After all, under the existing time zones, night falls during the winter at 4:30 in some places—why not leave the clock at 5:30?

Forgive me if these questions have simple or obvious answers that I'm overlooking.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.