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Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by kaonashi on Thursday September 25, 2014 @02:18AM (#8365875)
> Government spending via redistribution is absolutely zero sum.

Well, at the level of the currency issuer (of which India is one), Government spending is money creation, and not redistribution.

Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by logicchains on Friday September 26, 2014 @06:15AM (#8372075)
Money creation is still redistribution: redistribution to whoever first gets to spend the created money.
Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by kaonashi on Friday September 26, 2014 @09:45AM (#8372610)
No, it's distribution.

Sounds like you want an effective political system to oversee that distribution. Me too.

Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by logicchains on Saturday September 27, 2014 @05:05AM (#8376517)
It's distribution of money, but redistribution of purchasing power, for which money is used as a proxy.
Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by kaonashi on Saturday September 27, 2014 @02:39PM (#8377797)
Money isn't a proxy for anything, it's measuring and accounting.
Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by logicchains on Sunday September 28, 2014 @02:23AM (#8379096)
Well whatever it is, creating new money and giving it to someone increases their purchasing power compared to what it was previously, which all other things being equal means a reduction in everyone else's purchasing power.
Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by kaonashi on Sunday September 28, 2014 @10:20PM (#8381452)
That depends entirely on how much excess capacity there is, it's not per se inflationary. If you mobilize idle capacity with new money, then you're increasing the size of the pie (more money chasing after more goods).
Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by logicchains on Sunday September 28, 2014 @11:50PM (#8381626)
That's why I said "all other things being equal". In the general case is which there's no excess capacity, which can be assumed if the economy isn't undergoing a recession or the like, it's inflationary.
Re:Why India's Mars mission is so cheap – and thrilling by kaonashi on Wednesday October 01, 2014 @03:07PM (#8396934)
It doesn't even have to be recession. Slow growth and high unemployment (such as what we're seeing right now) also indicate that there's plenty of room to mobilize idle capacity.