Blame it on the Government?

Let me start by getting something off the table early. I love my country. Not only do I love my country, I believe that we all need to do our part (directly) in making our country the place to live, love, and do business. To do things which yield direct results. 

Now I figured earlier in my life that perhaps someday when I get older, as natural progression would allow, I would be more interested in politics (or even the nightly news for that matter), but have seemed only to be less interested as time went by (More on the News thing another time).

I believe we need good people to “run” the country. Absolutely. And I’m thrilled when people I know to be genuinely good people ascend to the chairs of Political Influence (This hardly happens, by the way). So allow me to be careful in how I address my disinterest, now that I’ve hopefully made enough of a disclaimer not to be attacked too much.

Now, if I think back to my professional life and all the things in that part of my life that were significant milestones – finishing High School, finishing Undergrad School, finishing Grad School, opening my own business, expanding that business each time, major investment decisions I’ve made subsequently- none of them were SIGNIFICANTLY impacted by which Party was in power at the time, or who was Prime Minister (Or President if that applies to you). Don’t get me wrong, I know that one party may have impacted my business in a small way (Different taxes perhaps etc), hence the term in caps earlier- “Significantly.” Many of the macroeconomic decisions that were needed to have been made were dictated by the (then) current economic environment.

Albeit, there is a part that did have to do with who we chose as a nation to lead us, and their individual choices, which would have impacted my life. There is a part that, a specific party would have had a better impact on my business based on their decisions, than another, had I only casted my votes, and chosen wisely, with the hopes the majority would do the same.

Here’s the thing. I believe that if I voted, I would be doing an injustice to the system simply because I am not informed enough. Does the majority vote based on intricate knowledge of Party members and their genuine thoughts on matters, vision for the country, and trust that they will be honest in their undertakings? Or does the majority vote based on Political Campaigns, speeches written by professional writers, a few false promises and a lot of emotion? Do we stereotype a Party’s likeliness to succeed based on the success of one member?

I do have the ability to be informed, mind you. But like many of us, when faced with the most significant constraint of all, time, I must choose to either invest significant time to researching Parties and Leaders inside out which will get me to make perhaps a 70% accurate decision (Because let’s face it, you can never know for sure) which will have a small albeit important impact on the outcome, or to use that time to undertake tasks which more directly impact my day to day, and my community.

I am not saying everyone should be disinterested. Not at all. I just believe that in my business, when I need great marketing, I go to the marketing expert. When I need great accounting, I go to the accounting expert. If I need great choices in Country Leadership, perhaps experts, rather than a mostly non-expert majority would make me feel a little more secure about the choices made.

Once again, I am not suggesting to be disinterested in your country (Notice the several disclaimers J). I am suggesting rather, that instead of spending hours and hours of your life in front of a TV set or a newspaper complaining about Political Leaders, instead of spending hours and hours blaming the issues of the country and your life in particular on the decisions of Politics, spend more time directly impacting the community in which you live, and in doing so, making it a better place for you to live, love, and do business in.