My real point in the original post, by analogy, is that Congress is spending way too much money for ill-thought out programs, without taking enough time to consider the consequences, long and short term.

Amos, I'm not saying solar is bad. I used to represent Sharp Appliances. Sharp had (still has?) a large solar panel manufacturing plant in Memphis (not the one in Egypt) which had been their TV assembly plant before TV moved south.

I am all for people using solar if it makes economic sense to them. I don't even mind that most installations are unaesthetic...although that's a big concern of the locals where I live. In good economic times I don't even begrudge local subsidies (albeit small ones) to folks who get bona fide installations which significantly reduce power consumption from the grid.