It's not quite the same as making land into public land. Land would still be used as if private. The only difference is that the people who profit from this private use pay "rents" instead of income tax, sales tax, property tax (which would include values of buildings and machinery and other things), capital gains tax, etc.

From what I understand, Hong Kong uses (either that or used until China took it back- not sure) this tax system and it has been pretty successful.

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The Tall Man, Phantasm III