I do not mean to imply that pure capitalism is more efficient for scientific progress, just that massive waste is common when the government funds programs, and too often heart-wrenchingly so. Hopefully we can decrease it with better policy processes for medium to long term investments, and a more science literate population. In the meantime, there's a lot to learn from.
D. E. Shaw made a ton of money on Wall Street and then started a private biochemistry research company that's done a bunch of basic scientific research (including supercomputing) with many publications (including top journals like Science).
