I have been reading up on the economics of wind power since I can now see windmills from Trap Corner on a regular basis. I have gone to a few engineer-friendly sites and, before getting lost in details, gotten quite an education.

I find little economic or even environmental justification in creating more windmills. Every posting to the contrary must justify its enthusiasm for wind power on unspecified technological improvements in some distant, Utopian future.

One non-techie comment stuck with me: Present subsidy levels and outright cash grants from the federal government provide eager wind power developers with a disincentive to choose sites wisely or to innovate technologically. After all, why bother pressing for efficiency when you get cash grants based on what you spend for the project, not on how much energy you produce or on how steadily and cheaply you can make it flow?

In fact, most of the spending and subsidizing President Obama does presents the recipients of public money with severe disincentives to choose wisely or produce anything of value. I am not just talking about Solyndra, here, either.

We stretch out unemployment benefits to the far horizon and then tack on easy access to the SSDI roles. Who can’t get an EBT card in a snap?

Is it any wonder March saw half a million people stop looking for work? Half a million. They have no incentive when those still working can be taxed to provide the dropouts with a monthly government check.

Leonard Hoy, Greenwood