Keller @ Large: What Constitutes A Happy 2017?

BOSTON (CBS) – A very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa to all who celebrate those holidays.

And here's another thing to celebrate today: the end of that annual period of awkwardness over what to wish each other.

For the next week, it's simple – Happy New Year to one and all.

But what will having a happy 2017 really mean? For me, several things:

Public discourse will be toned down, way down.

The big social media profiteers like Facebook and YouTube will finally put some money and elbow grease into editing their content to curb the worst of its excesses. How will they know what is acceptable and what isn't? Any decent person will know it when they see it, and the complaints of the indecent should be aggressively ignored.

Greed will become less – not more – fashionable.

The public shaming of some of the worst profiteers of the pharmaceutical industry has been a promising development over the past couple of years. As our economy continues to improve, a fork in the road emerges – those doing well can choose to stockpile and hoard the wealth, or look for ways to do right by their employees and communities. If it takes more public shame to coax more into doing the right thing, then bring it on.

Personal responsibility will become more – not less – popular.

People will shovel their sidewalks, eyewitnesses to crime will come forward, citizens will stop blaming the media and each other for their own problems.

And one last, perhaps self-defeating wish – that it become harder next year to find outrages to comment on.

Listen to Jon's commentary: