Do you approve of this idea? - Results (26 votes)
GMT-8 (Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas) is the last highly-populated time zone to celebrate New Years. And then theres GMT-9 (Alaska) & GMT-10 (Hawaii.)
The reason GMT-11 & GMT-12 are unused is many Pacific island nations (Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa, etc.)
unilaterally
changed their time zones to GMT+13 and GMT+14 to draw in tourists as
the earliest in the world to celebrate 1999/2000 and every subsequent New Years.
Being among the earliest to celebrate NY is definitely an incentive for tourism. Sydney, Australia (GMT+11), the first highly-populated city, attracts millions of revelers every year for that reason alone.
Contrary to popular belief, the Date Line is not governed by international law. Its a relic of the British Empires colonial past
when they declared themselves the center of the world (0 longitude) and whoever was unlucky enough to be on the opposite side of the world 180 longitude (Date Line.)
TL;DR SUMMARY:
The US can simply switch to GMT+15, +16, +17, +18 and make itself the tourist magnet
for revelers around the world to celebrate New Years FIRST. It would effectively switch the Date Line from the Pacific where it currently divides many poor island countries, to the
Atlantic which is far more sparsely populated
. It would make Britain, with its brutal colonial past, the last in the world for NY. And itll cut down on the massive amounts of trolling on English message boards from Asians & Europeans saying HAR HAR AMERIKANS STILL STUCK IN 2024.