That only works in China because 1) authoritarianism, and 2) because China's population is heavily concentrated in the west, where the time zone is natural. The US population is much more evenly split between the east and west, so you'd end up with a much more discontented population on average.
You could maybe get away with two US timezones, at best. Four (in the lower 48) is already kind of stretching it; swathes of New England are discussing breaking off into a fifth.
You could maybe get away with two US timezones, at best. Four (in the lower 48) is already kind of stretching it; swathes of New England are discussing breaking off into a fifth.