> Private owners respect and conserve their resources
> politicians [...] use up resources in a rush
> to accomplish short term, idiotic goals.
I think you missed the point. If the property in question were privately owned, then the goals concerning the property would be the owners' goals, not the politicians' goals. To the extent that the politicians' goals control property, the property isn't privately owned (except for the corner case of property the politicians privately own).
1. Politicians don't always mismanage publicly owned resources
2. When they do, it is often on behalf of a private interest, e.g. a real estate developer contributing to their next campaign
Many things get in the way of this simple statement being true.