What is the theme of "How Much Land Does a Man Need"?

Tolstoy had another reason for writing "How Much Land Does
A Man Need?" He discovered the teaching of Henry George, an American whose book Progress
and Poverty had a strong international influence. Henry George's basic idea is that
nobody should be entitled to own any part of the earth, and that it should be common
property, like the sky and the sea. Everyone who wanted land for farming or building
should pay the annual rental value of the land to the government, and the government
should have no other source of income such as income taxes, sales taxes, and excise
taxes. George and Tolstoy, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, believed that private ownership
of land was the source of many social ills.

In Tolstoy's
story the protagonist is trying to acquire much more land than he needs. If everybody
acted like Pahom all the earth would be monopolized by private owners who would be able
to force others to pay them just to live on the earth. But if everybody only used as
much land as they actually needed, there would be enough for everybody to live in
comfort and in harmony. Pahom is just like all the others who wish to fence off part of
the earth and make it inaccessible to others while they have no use for it themselves.
This is not greed for land but greed for power and money. It is obvious in Tolstoy's
story that Pahom cannot use all the land he covets. If he had more time he would try to
take in all of Asia.