Writing in European magazine E!Sharp, our director Thomas Aubrey cites research showing that the gap in trust in business between the elites or “informed public” – defined as those with a college education and a top quartile income – and the rest of the mass population has been widening over the last few years.
Only the US shows a greater inequality of trust in business than the UK. In France, the situation is almost identical to the UK with the majority of the elite trusting in business but only a minority of the mass population. Although the difference in trust between elites and the wider public is lower in Sweden, Germany and Spain, the lower levels of trust in business from even the elites suggest a more widespread malaise across Europe.
He concludes that: “An agenda for a progressive capitalism needs to focus on democratising all aspects of the economy including access to technical education, land, capital, while ensuring that a firm’s owners can effectively scrutinise the managers in control for the long run. Focusing on business as usual or increasingly unrealistic redistribution policies is no longer viable. Such an agenda will reduce the need for the state to intervene, resulting in a more democratic form of capitalism, driving up living standards for all.”
Thomas Aubrey is director of the Centre for Progressive Capitalism and founder of Credit Capital Advisory
The image is ‘Frankfurt’ by David Schiersner, published under CC BY 2.0