In the private sector, investors provide capital that companies (and employees thereof) use to pursue projects. When the company fails, the employees are genera

In the private sector, investors provide capital that companies (and employees thereof) use to pursue projects. When the company fails, the employees are generally still paid (while some companies have employees who participate in profits / share risk with investors, it's rare for it to be a dominant form of compensation). Thus, the situation is more similar than you describe: if the projects fail, the investor/owner has paid out a lot of money to employees and vendors and is left with nothing. The difference is that smart investors/owners are aware that the possibility of failure is inextricably tied to any attempt to excel, and allows people to try things that might fail in the pursuit of success. In our current political climate (and probably in other climates as well), governments are dumber, and tend to drive their staff to manage towards over-safety and covering of asses rather than towards best outcomes.