Richard Florida - whose "creative class" theory I spoke about before - recently wrote a blog entry on the merits of high-speed rail and its place in the economic recovery (crisis/opportunity).

To review, the "creative class," he states, will be an important socioeconomic group if this nation stands a chance going forward. Our nation was ruled, first, by an "agricultural class," then a "working class," and finally a "service class." But Florida says it will be the "creative class" that will drive our ace in the hole: innovation.

His three necessities for a thriving "creative class," or the Three 'T's:

1. Talent, or the need for a highly talented, educated, and/or skilled population

2. Tolerance, or the need for a diverse community and a "live and let live" ethos

3. Technology, or the need for technological infrastructure necessary to fuel an entrepreneurial culture.

Tolerance, as Friedman wrote in The World is Flat, is a cornerstone of every thriving society in the world. (And the United States were built for tolerance.)

Technology, or rather a technological infrastructure, is important. And although you may not think about high-speed rail as a technological advance, it is. But it isn't being employed enough, especially in America.

High-speed rail. It doesn't sound important, interesting, or particularly life-advancing, but it is. This isn't the Monorail to EPCOT that we're talking about.

It is 95.6 miles from New York to Philadelphia. Driving time is roughly 1 hour 49 minutes. Utilizing the current fastest high-speed rail? 36 minutes! And North America only needs 12 rail lines (one per mega-region; see below). It even makes us happier. (Emphasis mine.)

Philadelphia becomes a veritable suburb of NY, its commute time shrinking from nearly two hours to slightly more than a half hour. Washington-NYC and Boston-NYC become hour-and-a-half trips. San Diego becomes a bedroom suburb of Los Angeles. And commute times shrink considerably across Cascadias' main cities: The time to get from Portland to Seattle shrinks to just over an hour, while travel between Seattle and Vancouver is reduced to less than an hour. It would take just slightly longer than an hour and a half to get from Charlotte to Atlanta. And commutes between Dallas and Houston and Dallas and Austin shrink to an hour and a half or less.

Better high-speed rail connections promise considerable economic efficiency gains. And they also promise to relieve the psychological burdens of commuting by car. Research by behavioral economists like Nobel prize-winner Daniel Kahneman finds that long car commutes are among the things that most adversely affect our happiness.