"Not to mention for every Amazon, there have been 200+ tech startups with negative cash flow that went belly-up.
Like it or not, the US gov't has ALWAYS subsidized projects that were felt to be of benefit to the nation, starting with Lewis and Clark, through the railroads, thru commercial aviation, and on and on.
Some win, some lose. Libertarian purists get their knickers in a knot about it, but it "does" work. To the point that EVERY federal agency that funds R&D must reserve a percentage of their budget (I think 10%) devoted to pure "blue sky" research projects. The benefit of the "wins" has, historically, far outweighed the cost of the "loses".
Without DARPA we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
If the US Govt got 50% of the equity, I might agree with you. Any company that relies on at least 20% of its revenue to come from the government AND is still losing money hand over fist, isn’t a company, but an embezzlement. It may be a flashy embezzlement, and maybe many many years down the road it will work out, but there are many other car makers besides Musk and odds are it won’t work out great for taxpayers.