Global Strategy - blog

Now that a week has passed after the London-crippling 10 cm snowfall, it is time to look back, just a little bit. The question that seems to be the most pressing here seems to be the cost of the snow to the economy. In other words, how much did everyone (?) lose because of the white fluffy thing?

Estimates vary, some of them reaching billions of pounds. Every completely ‘lost' day, for example a normal banking holiday, is estimated to cost £6 billion. On the other hand, according to a Telegraph article, a state-of-the-art snowplough costs a maximum of £100,000. Locals have asked me repeatedly of my opinion of the whole thing (since I'm supposed to be quite used to this). Usually my reply is something like this: "Yes I do have an opinion of all this, but without snowploughs etc. there is nothing you can do about it." Then, if a country is not willing to have an armada of gritters waiting for the next winter cold, one has to accept the closure of schools and offices, as well as the profiteering behaviour of salt suppliers.

A whole another matter is that why unexpected things that cause people to do something else are automatically considered bad and costly? When some snow falls, it may be that some parts of the society (and economy) take breath. On the other hand, sledge sales surge.