What if you take "energy" to mean more than just electricity? The money to pay for the electricity to mine could be spent on something else. Or going even furth

What if you take "energy" to mean more than just electricity? The money to pay for the electricity to mine could be spent on something else. Or going even further back the work that was done to make the money to mine could be allocated differently. What could you build instead of the video cards and warehouses and A/C's used in mining?