Too many people are owning land - or rather people were buying land they could not afford with improvements that they certainly could not afford (high ceilings, marble counter tops, steel appliances) all on a teacher or secretarial salarly. Giving these people loans hiked the market, while the desire to consume had people "cash out equity" so that all but the most prudent are currently owing more than their values are worth now. All we need is to reduce those values more. The time for a land value tax is while the price is going up. Once the price has begun to fall, such an intervention is entirely inappropriate. What is needed is higher, not lower, incomes and a much greater redistribution of income. Many assume that the market wage is a fair wage. The nature of the labor economy proves that this is not the case. If that were the case there would be a factual (or even an essay) examination for every job offered (including Len Burman's). If it is really about what you know rather than what you've done or the degree you have, experience and degrees would be rated lower. Anyone meeting a threshold standard would bid on the job. The lowest bidder in the pool would get it. Separate payments would be made for dependents - likely supported by the tax system (either a citizen dividend or a credit to the employers business income tax (which for non-profits would be a tax on total payroll). Until we get such a system, which would take hierarchism out of employment pricing and make general wage levels rise as management wage levels fall, taxes on high income individuals are appropriate. As for land use taxes on unproductive land, historically doing something on that sphere is a matter for local government. It is already the law that properties by taxed at the highest and best use. If local governments are not doing their job, the problem is how local and state governments are organized. It is not a federal tax issue. Most Distributists and Libertarians (who are commonly advocates of an LVT anyway) would not want National Government in this arena anyway. Excess rents collected are already taxed under federal income taxes, and should continue to be - as well as excess wages which often come at the expense of lower wage workers. There is a page for state and local taxes, which is where LVT discussion should remain.