Why does the author begin his article with an anecdote about Ben Franklin and the number of candles wasted by Parisians in 1784?

It was only a a bit of fun that late riser Benjamin Franklin proposed daylight savings in 1784 and for more than two centuries it has been a topic of controversy. Now the EU Commission wants to abolish the clock change.
It all started with a joke: because the French got up so badly in the morning, Benjamin Franklin wrote a satirical discourse in 1784 about how many candles and money could be saved by changing the time and getting up earlier. In order to achieve this, Paris should tax shutters, ration candles and wake the population in the morning with cannon thunder.