We should teach our children that entrepreneurs are heroes, not villains

Earlier this year, I did what many fathers find themselves doing, sitting down to watch a kids’ movie with their children. On that occasion, my six-year-old daughter, Lottie, picked Clifford the Big Red Dog. It’s a sweet movie, but I couldn’t help noticing that the villain in the film was a Silicon Valley billionaire.

As I sat there, it dawned on me that this plot line was all-too familiar. From Gordon Gekko to Mr Burns, the media’s portrayal of business leaders is way too negative. Drama might not reflect reality, but it does shape how we see business leaders in our everyday lives.

It is my firm belief that business is an incredible force for good in society. Take a moment to look around you and count the number of incredible things we are fortunate to have as a result of an entrepreneur with an idea. The internet, modern travel, 24-hour news, your cappuccino this morning on your way in to work – all affordable and available to you because of a business.

Businesses aren’t just responsible for supplying us with quality products and services at reasonable prices, they provide the majority of jobs in our economy, are responsible for vast amounts of tax paid to the Treasury and are the ladders for social mobility.

I appreciate this is a somewhat unfashionable position to take. I have written at length, in these pages and others, about how public opinion has moved against free enterprise in recent years. Today, the British public are more likely to think big business is detrimental to society and that tax rates are too low, despite them being at their highest since records began, 70 years ago. In fact, only 47 per cent of Brits believe that entrepreneurs deserve to be rich, compared with 53 per cent of Americans and – much to my surprise – a very healthy 66 per cent of the French.

But perhaps these figures are unsurprising, given the anti-business sentiment permeating our schools and universities. This week, I gave a lecture at the Legatum Institute, “In Praise of Business”.

I used the opportunity to explain why business is a force for good, but also to argue that public attitudes are influenced by our educational, cultural and political institutions, resulting in some deeply anti-business policies being enacted in recent years. And I laid out a plan to change the narrative.

The stakes could not be higher. Britain is in the middle of a cost of living crisis, we have experienced a decade of productivity and wage stagnation, unemployment is starting to rise, there are huge pockets of worklessness across the country, and company insolvencies are at their highest since 2009. Now is not the time to forget that businesses are the force multiplier for economic growth, the ladder that people rely on to escape poverty and unemployment.

Winston Churchill once said, “Some... regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is – the strong and willing horse that pulls the whole cart along.”

I love that quote, as it encapsulates the battle we need to fight. Businesses are not rogue elements that need to be tamed by the government, but creative disrupters that need to be unleashed.

I look around now and see incredible people doing incredible things every day. Lord Bamford and JCB have pioneered a new hydrogen engine that will vastly reduce the carbon footprint of its excavators. OpenAI and ChatGPT are expected to revolutionise the way we get access to medical help and diagnoses. These incredible developments would never happen if we don’t cultivate an environment that is unashamedly pro-business.

A film about a big red dog is not the end of the world, but the national anti-business narrative matters, because if we want a successful society, we need successful businesses.

Matthew Elliott is the president of the Jobs Foundation. His full speech can be read online