You are correct that private companies are adding cost due to the desire to make money. I think the issue with the “public employee $1 to do $1 worth of labor”

You are correct that private companies are adding cost due to the desire to make money. I think the issue with the “public employee $1 to do $1 worth of labor” is that you get a level of complacency with government employees that can be a huge black hole for project funding. It’s possible, though not always the case, to allow a private company to make a profit while still getting more for your money. If the private employee is more efficient, they may need less hours to accomplish the same task. So the hourly rate may be higher, but there could be less hours in the equation to make the overall cost the same or lower. In theory at least.