> You mean government subsidizing the companies and taxing them in return?How is that a viable model?

You're asking how it can be viable to give money to unprofitable companies in the hope that some of them will repay it by becoming very profitable in future on a website run by YC? Really?

Exactly the point. YC is playing lotto with private venture. The governments cannot play lotto with the tax payers money.

Of course they can. Not investing in your own economy and infrastructure just because outcomes aren't guaranteed would be the insane policy

Investing in infrastructure and economy and playing lotto with tax payers money in random companies is two different things. By your definition the government could just put all tax money into stock market and hope for the best.

Investing money in the stock market doesn't meaningfully improve the economy. Unless by economy we mean the stock market of course. Sure, if you have run out of better investment options and still have money left over that's a decent strategy (Norway's sovereign wealth fund would be a good example). But usually there are better investments available for governments. Buying goods and services from local companies is one such better investment, since it directly benefits those companies, not just their stock holders and managers