I agree with everything you said.I'm really happy that that people doing ours are local. Literally the next town over. The only thing I am a little unhappy about is that the panels are Chinese panels, although manufactured in the US. While that is somewhat better, it still concerns me that the Chinese are behind the engineering of the panels. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.... I suppose at the end of the day, nothing is immune to an EMP.
There is only so much people can do to protect themselves.
The government for years has not been happy with our bartering we do. FSA wants cash transactions only, no trading. It will come down to bartering in the end.