Traffic congestion costs the U.S. economy $200 billion per year. Why mess with a good thing?

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a law approving the construction of a 130-mile bullet train between Los Angeles in the south and Sacramento and San Francisco in the north.

While such projects are often trumpeted as victories for labor and the environment, remember their main function: to relieve commuter pressure on freeways and other methods of transportation, freeing them up for the greater movement of trade goods. It’s no coincidence that this train is slated to follow nearly the same route as I-5, identified by the Department of Transportation as one of the U.S. trade corridors most in need of congestion relief in its Corridors of the Future program.

Critical trade infrastructure doesn’t always look like a new sea port or a gas pipeline.  Commuter trains may be just as important in propping up the global economic system that is killing our planet and enslaving its people.