I imagine that equity would involve complexities the government is not set up to handle. The overhead of maintaining hundreds of equity stakes in startups kind

I imagine that equity would involve complexities the government is not set up to handle. The overhead of maintaining hundreds of equity stakes in startups kind of boggles the mind. If government wants an equity stake, they’d be better off investing in a fund of VC funds - like what the BC Renaissance fund does in British Columbia. They stuffed $100M (pocket change, I know) into a fund of funds and let the VC manage all of it.