I work in academia. Funding is always scarce. It does not come out of the sky. Example: If the grant says that all proposal text must be in 11 point Times New

I work in academia. Funding is always scarce. It does not come out of the sky. Example: If the grant says that all proposal text must be in 11 point Times New Roman font, and you do 12 point Times New Roman, in the trash you go. People giving vast sums of money want to make sure every penny is carefully spent. As for crowdsourcing research, well, go for it. It's just that we already have a method for this. It's called "taxes." Edit: inevitable tax argument deflection: the vast majority of the US federal budget is, as Thomas L Friedman put it, "an insurance company with a military." Research as a portion is teensy-tiny. Our society could easily fund federal research - "we" just choose not to.