We can do better. A rough economic calculation suggests we can afford it. It shows that the benefit of a quicker cleanup and return to work would outweigh the extra cost.

I want to stress that I have nothing but admiration and sympathy for the snowplow drivers, Metro operators, electrical linemen and others who have labored under severe conditions during these historic storms. They worked for days in a row, often on 12-hour shifts.

But I do ask the politicians and agency officials who supervise those hardworking folks to set a higher standard and give their staffs enough support, equipment and organization to deliver better results.

Wouldn't it cost too much? Not according to estimates available from government and private analysts. Bottom line: The cost of clearing snow in the region is measured in the tens of millions of dollars per year. The loss of economic activity that results from snow shutdowns runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars per day.

For instance, the state budget to clear snow in Northern Virginia each winter is $27 million. With this year's record snowfall, the cost so far is $67 million.

By contrast, the Office of Personnel Management estimates that shutting just the federal government for one day costs $100 million. Snow shut it for four days this past week.

(Stephen S.) Fuller, who is director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, acknowledges that more resources for snow removal could be cost-effective. He calculates the region's total output on a single work day in February at $1.225 billion. Even if a snow shutdown led to a permanent loss of just a tenth of that, he noted, it could be worth the price to clean up faster.

"If you could get it all back by plowing the roads, you could plow a lot of roads for $122 million," Fuller said.

We'll all profit in the end by overcoming our reputation as snow amateurs.