Technology

NASA does a hell of a lot more work than just build rockets lol. SpaceX and all the other private space companies focus on a few of the wide array of programs and services NASA does. They certinally have some poor decisions in their history (as does every space program of the 20th century) but comparing SpaceX's spending with an appropriate context of NASA's spending is ludicrous. Its not something you can just put into numbers and any comparisons I've seen thus far have been wildly skewed in SpaceX's favor for marketing reasons.

NASA (and ESA, RosCosmos, others) funding provided decades of R&D SpaceX uses to build its products with and the university curriculums all the engineers at SpaceX learned at.

Also, we dont know how a NASA that wasnt so de-funded since the 80s would have operated, but it's well established that the budget cuts and uncertainty those created have been a major factor in its ability to build new programs like Artemis, Orion, SLS, etc. in a manner that would be efficient. SLS was bogged down for years waiting for congressional approval that was repeatedly blocked or maliciously modified last minute by congressional and senate republicans, a form of efficiency knee-capping that the agency never faced in the Apollo or Space Shuttle days.

have you seen the plastics industry? Let alone consumer packaging

Not an apples to apples comparison. Check out the many lawsuits and reported criticism of the more careless Starship test flights

Space X would not exist without NASA. It only appears remotely “efficient,” because they get to use decades of taxpayer funded research