Wrong assumption. You're assuming there would be no clear-sky type of research or basic research if there wasn't an incompetent organization of criminals at the top that expropriated part of your income to spend it however it feels like.

This criminal gang forces the general public(at the point of a gun if sufficiently resisted) to fund among other things environmentally destructive and imoral corn ethanol. Useless wind turbines. Pointless wars in far off countries fought for ever-shifting reasons and against ever-shifting adversaries. Culture. bank bail-outs. Housing and tech bubbles. A broken patent system that stiffles innovation and infringes on the property rights of those afflicted by it(e.g. you're telling me what kinds of programs I may code using my computer, whether or not I have any prior knowledge of the patent, many of which are frivolous like digital waveguide synthesis or one-click online shopping). Farm subsidies. Cartellization of industries through deceptive use of unnescessary environmental and safety regulation.

If you got rid of all this junk people would have more wealth to spend as they please and more importantly they would face the fact that they are in control and they will have to fund the science they would like to see happen.

Currently most people tend to think of the state as an omniscient, benevolent, god-like creature. This is the wrong mental model of government. The correct model is the Department of Motor Vehicles with some rent-seeking and graft sprinkled on top.