Why is "make a boatload of money doing something obscenely profitable and distribute the money yourself" off the table?

Companies and wealthy individuals can and do fund research, maybe not as much as in the past but why not encourage it?

In the end, charity, philanthropy and patronage can't achieve much more than help us feel good about massive inequalities. Not that it is completely useless, but if we want to have actual institutions carrying serious research we need public funding.

It's certainly on the table, I'm only pre-empting it as a clever answer since it's one I'm already aware of.

Companies and wealthy individuals don't fund the same research as the government.

The government funds research that other scientists think is important. That's long term, often not flashy, meat and potatoes kind of stuff.

Companies tend to have very short time horizons. And wealthy individuals want splashy things. None of these are an option if the federal government is going away.