Literally. What is called "profit" in a private industry is what would be called "waste" in a public service. It's literally money that runs through the system and accumulates rather than being used. Ironically when politicians want to run a public service more "like a business", they will try to squeeze the budget to cut costs to in turn justify further cuts until the service fails to do what it was originally meant to do and has to be replaced by a for-profit industry that generates an even larger overhead at even more cost to society once you factor in the fees, subsidies and other factors.
