My wife and I have collected a lot of stuff over the years.  We have been in our current house for 8 years and still have some boxes in the garage which we never unpacked.  Lately we have started to make some progress in clearing out the clutter, but the process is mentally challenging when trying to figure out what to do with the stuff we decide to get rid of. 

The choices include:

• Sell it on Ebay 
• Give it to a friend/family member
• Donate it to the Good Will
• Put it in the trash
• Gift it away on Freecycle

Each item on the shelf has its own considerations and each method of disposal has its pros and cons.  Selling on Ebay obviously has its monetary rewards but always involves more time than I ever estimate for taking pictures, creating the listing, answering questions and finally the dreaded packing and shipping.  Often the money is not what you would hope, but some money is better than no money.

Giving to a friend seems like a good idea, but has no immediate gratification.  First you have to call or email your friend to offer the items and then, if they agree to take them, you need to arrange for pickup or drop off which can potentially take weeks or months or might even be forgotten altogether.  Meanwhile, the stuff is still in the garage.

Giving to charity is not a bad option.  You get  a tax deduction, and you can get rid of a car-load of stuff in one shot.  Of course you have to do the loading and unloading and you don't get paid.

Freecycle is a  really good option that we recently discovered.  If you've never heard of this, it is a network of people, connected by email, who agree to give and/or receive items at no cost.  Freecycle keeps stuff out of the landfill (at least for a while) and is the bridge from one man's transh to another man's treasure.  It is free to join and the main requirement is that you cannot accept any compensation for what you are giving away.  Once you join, you're added to an email list (either individual emails or a daily digest).  People with stuff to give post an 'Offer' email listing the items.  People interested in the items write back to the donor and express an interest.  The donor then selects a lucky recipient and the recipient comes and picks up the item.  

We joined the West Chester Freecycle group several months ago and have given away quite a few items. So far it has worked very well for us.  Stuff that wasn't likely to get any action on Ebay was gone the same day.  Better yet, I never had to touch the item as someone came and took it away.  And best of all, something that would most likely have wound up in the trash got a new life from someone who really could use it.

The announcement that President Obama asked Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors, to resign prompted me to compare the electric utility industry and the automobile industry.

Some in the electric utility industry such as Exelon and Duke Energy have figured out how to profit from reducing global warming.  They recognize that global warming is real and anticipate that the government will impose a mechanism for charging for the Carbon produced by burning fossil fuels.  Coal and gas fired power plants will have to pay something in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 dollars per ton of carbon they emit.  Exelon is the largest operator of nuclear power plants in the United States.  Since nuclear power plants do not produce carbon, Exelon will not incur the carbon costs.  So the economics of nuclear power plants will improve relative to the fossil fueled plants.  Exelon anticipated these events, embraced them and then figured out how to profit from the situation.  

I contrast this to the US auto industry which has resisted regulations to raise fuel efficiency standards.  Trucks and SUVs are highly profitable products where as US compact cars sometimes are sold at a loss.  Raising efficiency standards or raising gas prices would hurt the sales of the profitable truck and SUVs. To protect their business,  the US auto industry chose to resist and try to keep the status quo.  They said that they do not control what kind of vehicles are popular.  They claimed they just make what Americans want.  Meanwhile Toyota and Honda invested in efficient engines and then hybrids.  The Japanese figured out what the trends were and positioned their businesses to profit.