If this is successful, the US government gets taxpayers and people out of unemployment lines. There is an upside, but not directly from the payback of the loan.
This money is taken from private sector, profitable companies like Google and Apple, and is given to politically connected, trendy companies like Solyndra. Politically directed investment increases unemployment because the incentives are all wrong and the resources are invariably wasted. Private markets do a far better job allocating capital than governments-- that's the overwhelming economic lesson of the 20th century.
