Dear David,

I read with alarm your proposal to return to feudalism, in which all 
land is held, as they said, "of" the king!  I suppose the power to tax 
is the power to destroy, and so the difference might not be great, but 
I'd prefer a land-taxing authority run by politicians in mortal fear of 
voters than a literal ownership of land by the state, even if i the 
land-owning state was also beholden to voters.  The difference would 
indeed be negligible if the state consisted of politicians, kings, 
judges, and bureaucrats who approximated in rectitude the average 
Swedish civil servant.  But economists need to include the actual 
behavior of Our Friend the State in their analyses, yes?  Your 99-year 
lease point for China rather makes my point.  I suppose you would not 
claim that liberty, or for that matter prosperity, has been increased by 
the reversion of Hong Kong to the care of civil servants quite far from 
the Swedish ideal.

Warm regards,

Deirdre McCloskey