Jobs and Change

From CNBC today:

Facebook COO: IPO Will Produce Jobs, World Change

What are we coming to when the private sector thinks it can usurp the role of government?

Arun Majumdar, the director of Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy... “We don’t know which ones are going to win down the line, which ones are going to actually make it in the market and produce hundreds of thousands of jobs and really change the world,” he told NPR.
It’s a risk the government is more than willing to take. The Obama administration has given Majumadar’s organization $500 million. Clean energy projects have received almost $95 billion.

On a serious note,  isn't it concerning that Mr. Majumdar can say so casually, "We don’t know which ones are going to win down the line, which ones are going to actually make it in the market," as if he's spectator at a race?  Can anyone imagine a venture capitalist who is risking millions of his own money and that of his investors being so nonchalant about success or failure?  Certainly any investment carries uncertainty, but when you are using someone else's money (the taxpayers') to "gamble," the stakes don't seem quite as high.