Marty's Musings!: "Always look on the bright side..."

One of my good friends recently told me that he enjoyed being around me because I always had a positive attitude and that I, to quote the great Monty Python, 'always looked on the bright side of life."

As such I was taught early in life to "not sweat the little stuff" and to "not worry about things that I can't change."

It's helped lesson my stress as well.

As I look towards the year 2012, and that always refreshing "things will be better as soon as the clock strikes midnight and we roll over in to a new year" belief here are a few thoughts on things that I think 'can' be changed if we really try.

First off - the economy.

When I was over in Europe recently I noticed something very odd and that was what I call the 'ping pong' effect of the worlds stock markets. As you wake up in the morning and check the media you could easily get a handle on what the stock market was like because each continent looked at the other continent to see how 'they' did yesterday so that they could react in either a positive or negative manner. Same thing over here - we blame Europe or Asia.

In Canada, to some degree, we look domestically at how we are doing yet will jump all over a trend from both aforementioned countries and somehow would adapt their scenario to ours thus a good day or bad day on the TSX.

Now I'm no stock broker or investment genius but one thing surely seems apparent to me.

The amazing amount of 'instant worry' we feel when we see any modicum of bad news in the investment world means we panic and the great sell off happens.

In the US there are 'trillions' of dollars sitting in corporate savings accounts that surely would be better spent if companies decided to again a) make stuff and b) hire domestically.

In Germany it was overwhelming to see a country that so dominates the automotive world, to just use one example, and how that country seems to be in a 'leadership' role. If you grade the top automobiles in the world BMW, AUDI, Porsche and Volkswagen are the kings of the castle.

If more companies decided they want to 'lead' instead of 'follow' with their products methinks we'd be in better shape than we are now.

Next - Politics.

It seems the only role for Political parties now is to 'get the other guy out at all costs.' This past year has been spent watching the Republicans do everything they possible can to 'stall' the Democrats and it takes months and months to get anybody to agree on anything while the country continues to collapse in economic ruin.

Don't get me wrong - I'm also not an expert on politics but when you hear an announcement from the banks like we heard this week in that "they promise not to evict anybody from their homes over the Christmas period" we simply are in a terrible and highly insensitive time."

Next, I don't know why 'anybody' would run for politics anymore unless they have a totally pristine record (and who doesn't have a skeleton or two in the closet.) It seems the instant somebody declares they want to run for office, almost at any level, the media goes into high gear to find something terribly wrong with them. Granted there are some 'bad people' in politics but surely having your entire life time rolled out in front of the rest of the world to see (including your own family) for some meaningless 'mistake' that they learned from and corrected in their lives can't be a good thing.

The recent gathering of the so called 'super committee' was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen and I can see things going virtually 'on hold' until the US election is completed in early 2013.

Lock 'em in a room. Throw in a bunch of sandwiches until they make a decision and 'get 'er done' as that famous comedian Larry the Cable guy so eloquently lays it out.

*By the way check his website, it's absolutely amazing!

Next - Share the wealth

I think the Occupy (your city goes here) program's theme is admirable, however how they operated it over the time period they did before being thrown out of every cities downtown core was their downfall.

They simply stated something terribly obvious and that is the gap between the rich and the poor is growing at a tremendous pace. Yes the 'bottom of the food chain' makes every excuse in the world to not work but somewhere in the pack are a bunch of people/families that simply can't make a living anymore due to downsizing and distribution of 'corporate profits.'

(If I hear the word 'restructuring one more time I'm going to throw up)

Hey I'm all for companies and people making a lot of money and if your skill/talent is in high demand 'good for you.' But with all that cash DOES come a responsibility to share some of your wealth.

Paying our athletes or entertainers millions and millions of dollars to perform for us is now at the 'insane' level especially when their deals go up with the excuse "If Bobby makes 3 million I'm better than him and need to make 4 million."

There are many many fabulous sports and entertainment stars that visibly give back - and are totally involved in making life better for others but there are thousands and thousands more that are simply 'jerks' and carry on like total assholes in public while being so called 'roll models' for our children.

It doesn't take 'much' to make a difference too. My favorite quote from the Haiti fund raising event came from Stevie Wonder who said "it takes a whole lot of littles to make a whole lot of lots."

And if you make more money in a year than an entire country - yes - you make too much money.

(Insert picture of your favorite jerk here - there are far too many to host in just one blog).

OK - then just one...(don't sue me...I don't have any money!)

The list of things to make the year 2012 so much better than the previous three or four years is a long one - but the 'big three' to me are:

1. Fix the economy - please! Stop day trading and jumping in and out of the stock market on a daily basis because the rest of the lemmings are following along. We were on a nice roll a few years back; things ARE getting better; but it's now time to get it together.

2. Stop the bickering at all levels of government and 'serve the people' who put you in office in the first place. Set an agenda with a high priority of 'fixing the obvious things' and the rest will fall in to place later.

3. Share your wealth. Roll your sleeves up too and 'get involved' in some project in your neighborhood. If you're taking your fans money from a particular city please put some back. One of these days our stadiums and arenas and movie theaters just might not be "Occupy-ide."