After a couple of decades wasting scarce resources on non-productive consumption and financial gimmicks, future progress depends on increasing productivity (doing more with less spending) by lowering day to day friction costs in the most critical areas like energy, transportation, housing, food production and environmental harm.

Chicago has the right idea this week in embracing a new electric, high-speed train service promising to cut transport costs while halving travel times and reducing air pollution, carbon emissions and congestion throughout the metropolitan area.

Chicago, slammed by rating agencies for its fiscal woes, President Donald Trump for its violence and even its own governor for the school system’s debts, is getting a boost from visionary Elon Musk.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Musk, the billionaire chief executive officer of electric carmaker Tesla Inc., Thursday officially unveiled the plans for a high-speed train service that will make the approximately 15-mile (24-kilometer) trip from downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport in 12 minutes, a fraction of the current commute…He’s bearing the cost,” Emanuel told reporters. “We get the upside with no financial risk at all.”See:Hounded by woes, Chicago sees Musk’s train as win for the economy.

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