"Take the profit out of owning Mother Earth" and according to Wendell Fitzgerald, President of the Henry George School of San Francisco, you'll cure the root cause of a multitude of social problems: deforestation, urban sprawl, urban blight, isolation, and the list goes on.
The problem isn't capitalism.
The problem is that we basically inherited a feudalistic system from our European ancestors, and then we corrupted it by adding income taxes to the traditionally feudalistic property taxes.
In the Medieval Feudal System, the land was understood to belong to God.
Fortunately for the Kings, they were accepted as representatives of God, so they managed the land and used it as they wished.
They had a right to kill mere peasants who shot "their" deer, for instance.
They also owned the trees in the forests and the poor peasants were only allowed to pick up wood for cooking when there was a "windfall" - a wind that made dead branches fall to the ground.
The Kings granted Nobles and Knights lands in return for their military services.
The Nobles and Knights would in turn grant some of their lands to Freemen.
Life lived under the Medieval Feudal System demanded that everyone owed allegiance to the King and their immediate superior, not unlike our pyramid of power today..
Historically, the people who were "superior" to everyone else passed on their land to their posterity, and the system has morphed over the centuries, so that today corporations are not only King, they are our new God! Whereas it was understood that God owned the land in the Medieval feudal system, now, only corporations and those few individuals who everyone recognizes as their "superiors" own the bulk of the land.
Sure, we peasants may say we own our own homes, but it's usually the corporate bank that really owns them.
And a big part of the valuation is the land on which our homes sit.
By all natural rights, the land value should be taken out of the equation.
Incidentally, the incorporated area or government always retains "the right to appropriate private property for public use.
" The idea of land appropriation for public use may be well justified.
Still, the point is that the general public is more vulnerable today to the economic dangers of losing their use of their land than were the Medieval serfs! Playing God by claiming ownership to the land has opened a can of worms that can be traced to every major problem that faces society.
If corporations acknowledged their responsibility to return to the community the profits derived from clear-cutting forests, there would be a lot less deforestation.
If they couldn't own the land, they'd be less likely to create sprawled neighborhoods.
Growth radiates smoothly from more intensive use in the urban centers to rural areas without pockets of vacant or poorly utilized land in between.
Urban sprawl is curtailed and rural land is more readily retained in its natural state, available for parks and nature preserves.
- from the Course on Land Rights and Land Value CaptureBy Earth Rights Institute People would live in smaller, more naturally cooperative communities, which would end the sense of isolation many people feel today.
It would also solve a lot of our country's oil and gas shortage since people would be traveling less.
There would also be less car accidents, injuries and deaths for the same reason.
Making land available to anyone for productive purposes and sharing the profit from land operations with the community would reduce poverty and poverty related issues.
Generally, land is not going to transferred to the people.
However, capturing the value of the land in the form of tax and returning that to the people in the form of community improvements or services serves the same purpose.
Below are some more benefits to doing this: Gender Rights Attainable Through Equitable Land Access Access to land enables women who might otherwise have to migrate to cities and low paying jobs, to secure sites for housing, food production or small businesses.
Public Services and Facilities Can Pay for Themselves Wherever local, regional or national governments bring public order, safe water, sanitation, parks, schools, roads, mass transit or health facilities, landowners immediately get higher rents and prices.
These increased land values-which often exceed the related public costs-are the natural earnings of the community, region or nation...
Decent, Affordable Shelter for All Worldwide, programs to house poor people flounder, not recognizing that high housing prices are the result of rising land values more than the costs of construction.
Rational and Balanced Development There is less pressure to build on agricultural land near urban areas.
Rational and balanced development decreases costs for transportation, utilities, fire and police protection and other public services, all of which further results in increased social cohesion and an interesting, safe, "walkable" city.
Land value capture can thus be viewed as an essential component of good urban planning.
Implementation: Requirements for Land Value Capture A successful land value capture system requires the following:

1. A land register, transparent and freely available to the public, documenting the location, boundaries and physical qualities of each land parcel.
   
2. Descriptions of private and communal rights to possession and use of each parcel...
   
3. Accurate assessments of the annual rental value of each parcel, and capital value where applicable.
   
4. Methodology for determining the percentage of land rent to be captured from each land parcel through a five to ten year period.
   
5. Means of collecting the funds from landholders (taxes usually).
   
6. Method of democratic, participatory citizen input regarding the utilization and allocation of these public funds.
   

This is all explained more in the brochure for the course on Land rights and Land Value Capture.
When we get rid of our corrupted feudalism, our posterity will be rulers of their own domain.
Peace and prosperity to the kids.
Amen!