> taking VC money
Usually this argument is phrased as a "household debt", but the problem is the same: you're mixing up private debt mechanics with sovereign debt, which follows a completely different set of rules. Consider that startup with VC money in a situation where they can print money or define base interest rates.
Sovereigns have a lot more flexibility in how they handle debt. A successful tool used in the past with long-term thinking governments has been to simply inflate away debt. For the same reason a mortgage is sometimes considered "good debt" when it becomes cheaper with inflation, the US is still paying off debts from the Civil War.
> concluded this was a good way to run your life
It's not, but nations are different, and ignoring those differences is foolish.
> I have no clue how wasteful our governments are
In general, they are surprisingly efficient for what they are trying to do. We may disagree on what those goals should be - which is why being involved in politics is important - but we do generally get a very good value for our money in implementing those goals.
A big part of that is the fact that a government doesn't take a large initial cut as profit. An easy example of this is paying for healthcare: a government can legislate how much money is wasted in the implementation (Medicare is incredibly efficient), while private insurance companies used to take a significant percentage (15%-50%, if I remember correctly) as profit.
The phrase "government waste" is usually a euphemism for "I hate that project and don't want to see money spent on Those People" (which varies with political affiliation and opinion). Sometimes this has racist or similar tribal origins, and sometimes this has class origins. Regardless, simply calling things "waste" usually oversimplifies the situation.