In almost every “run” there is. I’m making this post a) because of its relevance to my recent calls for steep land value taxation which was of (relatively) high interest and b) because Paul Krugman and Noah Smith beg to differ. (How often does a not Very Serious Person get to disagree with Krugtron, after all?)
There are obviously strong theoretical reasons to believe that land prices correlate well with population. Probably the simplest argument is a rising demand on a perfectly inelastic supply. More intricately, David Ricardo argued that an increasing working class would steadily increase the demand for grains increasing rents earned on fertile land, thereby the net present value of all future returns and hence the price.
In America, Henry George – perhaps not coincidentally after a failed attempt at finding gold – angrily argues for land taxation in his Progress and Poverty, not with arguments…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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