Why do people sneer at government helping out the nuclear power industry, but not government helping out their own favored industries? Either there's a consistent principle there, or there isn't.

Leave it in the hands of people who measure quality of life exclusively in terms of the profit their company makes?

Yes. If we do, we stand a better chance of getting a decent result. Far better than leaving it in the hands of people whose sole incentive is the accumulation of power.

Almost everything you use, eat, buy, wear, or drive, every device, every technology, every innovation, was manufactured by someone who wanted to make a profit at it. I assume your own goal, as someone who works for a living, is to make more than you need to simply live from day to day.

You are living in the most advanced nation in the world thanks to the profit motive. Nations where private property and profit have been illegal are hellholes. I have no idea how much intellectual self-devastation is needed to overlook a century of world history in this regard.