Restoring some snippery to make the query/answer 
intelligible

>>> 1) At the efficiency levels that solar converts to 
>>> electricity, it takes
>>> more energy to create solar panels than they produce.

>>  A moment's thought about the economics of this make me 
>> ask: How can this possibly be true?

> Government subsidies.

We already had a round of detailed answers to this.
We seem to be going around the loop again.

So, no, it's not true by any normal standards.
While PV panels are not, as yet, competitive with grid 
electricity in most areas, they are both net energy positive 
over a typical lifetime and cost competitive in their own 
right.

Rough and quick:

$5/Watt bare panel.
20 year life.
4 kWh/day insolation mean.
12% delivered efficiency.

Returned energy in 20 years for a 100 Watt panel is

100/1000 kW x 4 kWh/day x 365 days x 20 years =~ 3000 kWh
Panel cost = 100 x 5 = $500.
Energy value varies but at Howard's horrendous $US0.48/kWh 
that's
    0.48*3000 = $US1440.
Add installation, cabling and more and it's closer to break 
even than is nice.

But the selling price is, the invisible  hand assures us, 
significantly above the energy cost of production.

By all means add your own assumptions.

Note that "government subsidies", as also discussed here 
recently, can include, as well as pork and more, payments 
for the advantages conveyed to the body corporate of having 
individuals enter the power generation market. While one 
James rooftop of PV panels is no big deal in the scheme of 
things, a state full of such can make a significant 
difference in power generation reckonings. Some see that 
anything they can make from others at no true cost to 
themselves as a legitimate gain but any payment by the state 
for legitimate gain as personal theft of their property. For 
such there are no legitimate savings which the government 
can pay for so such payments are necessarily theft. A 
philosophy free accountant, should such exist, may be more 
easily convinced by such arguments .



        Russell

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