I'd ask if they now feel it would've been better spent on public services
Public services will eat millions and barely do anything with the money except line people's pockets. For some reason it's just more expensive when the government does it.
maybe "barely doing anything" is better than doing nothing, though?
Below a certain threshold, throwing money at public services is just going to get it diluted. This may not necessarily be a bad thing on its own, but when even the smallest public project seems to cost way more, you're never going to know if your $10M investment helped, or if it just went into someone's paycheck.
Are private projects better? I've never heard of a private alternative to SNAP or Medicare or Section 8, nor any interest in creating such programs.
True - the UK's NHS was a product of people realising there would never be universal health care if it was left to the market.
Opex is a valid form of public spending. Paying people properly ensures they remain as public servants.
The VC is never going to spend the money on services for the public good. They will always gamble 1x money on a handful of startups, hoping that 1 hits and returns 10x, rinse and repeat. So one can choose to take the money for a chance at success, or not, but public services was never the opportunity cost.