> I don't know where you live, but I have never lived any place (all in the USA) that doesn't tax land already.
The issue is that we tax the land and the buildings together. We should tax only the land. And we're often not taxing it enough.
> I for one enjoy having open spaces that are not developed
I enjoy those spaces too! You know what we have right now? SPRAWL. For miles in every direction. Pavement that gobbles up more and more greenfield spaces, for low-density, low-value uses. Outlying wilderness land is not very valuable, but land in urban centers is very valuable. Because we don't tax that land appropriately, we just encourage people to sprawl out further and further, and because we tax buildings, we discourage people from building densely. This leads to more land consumption and less of the open undeveloped space you like.
Those trees you love? They're being cut down to make way for parking lots and strip malls and self-storage units. Really wasteful uses of land. Denser building would make it so demand for housing, commerce, and amenities are fulfilled on a much smaller footprint.
If we taxed land appropriately, we would have way more undeveloped land, and more appropriate density in the city, and you wouldn't have to commute nearly as far to get to the wilderness.
The issue is that we tax the land and the buildings together. We should tax only the land. And we're often not taxing it enough.
> I for one enjoy having open spaces that are not developed
I enjoy those spaces too! You know what we have right now? SPRAWL. For miles in every direction. Pavement that gobbles up more and more greenfield spaces, for low-density, low-value uses. Outlying wilderness land is not very valuable, but land in urban centers is very valuable. Because we don't tax that land appropriately, we just encourage people to sprawl out further and further, and because we tax buildings, we discourage people from building densely. This leads to more land consumption and less of the open undeveloped space you like.
Those trees you love? They're being cut down to make way for parking lots and strip malls and self-storage units. Really wasteful uses of land. Denser building would make it so demand for housing, commerce, and amenities are fulfilled on a much smaller footprint.
If we taxed land appropriately, we would have way more undeveloped land, and more appropriate density in the city, and you wouldn't have to commute nearly as far to get to the wilderness.