The same way most of them do now -- through venture capital firms. Or maybe if they had more tax revenue, the US government could sponsor more speculative research and companies.

I'm not talking about "Let's start a social media app for Aardvarks!" kind of ideas, but actual scientific research. We used to have pure research orgs like Bell Labs, but companies aren't funding pure research any more, so we need more investment from government. Not every idea should have a path to monetization before it's funded.

I don't equate "skunkworks" with high risk. To me, that's not "risk" as much as "I don't care about monetization in the first place", like you're saying. I agree that research without promise of a payout is sorely missing these days.

When I say "maybe we should have less high risk", I'm thinking of fly-by-night companies that do make a social media app for aardvarks, spend a bunch of money on slick marketing so they can pump their IPO, and then pull the rug with them when they bail.

But billionaires don't become billionaires by doing skunkworks projects. They often do the latter.

So there is the possibility the market can be made to care again.

And sure, you could just say "well, let's just not do bailouts then", but then that leads to things like bank closures, airline collapses, imploding automobile industries [0], etc. Basically, we can argue about specific cases, but there are some things that become too important to fail.

Ultimately, there are things that benefit society that taxes should be used to pay for. Some of those things should be done regardless of what any potential payout might be. Note that billionaires don't help solve these problems. If anything, they make them worse because they often pay a far lower percentage tax than anybody else.

[0]: Of which the US at least is highly dependent on. I want this to change, but it won't be an overnight thing by any means.