I just spent four days with my kid sister cruising down the Göta Kanal, from Stockholm on the east coast of Sweden to Gothenburg on the west. The little ship built in 1874 chugged through the hot nights and splendid meals. It’s a classic trip for Scandinavians, and being one-quarter Norwegian my sister and I had to do it. We became acquainted with most of the passengers and crew. Lovely.

But wait. The canal is 190 km. It was opened in 1832, long before the invention of the steam shovel. About 100 km of the 190 km used the natural lakes and rivers, leaving 90 km and numerous locks to be dug by military recruits with hand shovels.

Its justification was creating economic activity in the center of Sweden, avoiding the irritating Sound Toll charged by the Danes at the entrance to the Baltic, and achieving the glory of a Big State Project. In modern terms the justification was Keynesian employment, industrial planning, state provision of transport, strategic foresight. And state glory.

None of it worked. The natural river close to Gothenburg serviced anyway the activity that was actually profitable to the nation. Its big locks were dug later by steam shovels. But the 90-km hand-dug on the Stockholm side were never commercially viable. They serve now for a little pleasure boating by rich people. Thanks.

The Brutish canals of the 1790s were privately financed, and profitable. In the U.S. the Erie Canal, opened 1825, was operated by the state but financed by private bonds. It turned very well, economically speaking. But all the others in the U.S., and the Göta, were economic disasters, for two reasons. They were all state projects, and so glory regularly overrode common sense. And they assumed, as state planning regularly does, that technology would not change. It did. The railway made most canals pointless.

If a private person ventures her fortune on a pointless project, she loses her bet and the investment is directed elsewhere. If the state seeks glory justified by the usual nonsense of Keynesian employment and industrial panning, investment is diverted to projects that lower national income. Rational covid policy, yes. Most glorious projects, no.

Where have you heard this before? The project of Brasilia itself? And most of the glorious projects emanating from it now?

Could be.