Most of America’s Founders had firsthand business experience. George Washington expanded Mount Vernon into a diversified estate, while John Hancock amassed great wealth through trade. Their merchant’s grasp of risk and markets helped shape a republic grounded in property rights and personal liberty.
For much of modern history, however, US CEOs and entrepreneurs retreated from that legacy. Rather than echo the Founders’ zeal for liberty, many quietly acquiesced to regulations, taxes, and sprawling government. Appeasing bureaucrats often felt safer than challenging them.
Now, an increasing number of US business leaders are outspoken. They’re championing policies that promise more restrained government and criticizing unchecked federal power. Elon Musk stands out: By buying Twitter, he turned a mainstream tech platform into a forum for free speech advocacy and lambasted an “alphabet soup” of agencies stifling innovation. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, once a reliable Democrat, has likewise pivoted to public critiques of regulators who have become “weaponized” against tech. And hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman has railed against policies that dampen investment and job creation.
Critics call this billionaire self-interest. But their emergence as vocal advocates of smaller government and less regulation echoes 1980s New Zealand. Back then, the Kiwi economy was sinking under tariffs, subsidies, and bureaucracy. In 1984, the Labour government faced financial calamity and enacted sweeping reforms—privatizing state industries, deregulating entire sectors, and ending subsidies. The often-overlooked catalyst behind these changes, however, were business leaders who discovered new conviction in competitive markets.
Before the crisis, most New Zealand CEOs sought government favors and protection. But Sir Ron Trotter, who headed Fletcher Challenge, the country’s largest conglomerate, and beer baron Sir Douglas Myers, then New Zealand’s wealthiest man, reversed course to champion free enterprise. Myers—who much later sold his mega yacht to Google co-founder Larry Page—didn’t need public approval, yet he and Trotter toured the country advocating open competition and limited government. The reforms they supported unleashed a surge of Kiwi innovation and boosted living standards. From 1993 to 1996, New Zealand’s real GDP grew at an average annual rate of almost 5 percent, unemployment fell and per-capita incomes rose.
Today, America’s equivalent figure is Elon Musk who, as Andreessen put it on Joe Rogan’s podcast, has provided a “permission structure” for others to break with progressive orthodoxy. Musk’s relentless critiques of regulatory bloat have stretched the Overton Window, making it newly acceptable—even popular—to question an ever-expanding state.
In New Zealand, Trotter and his colleagues did more than speak. They joined government committees, sat on key boards, and founded a free market think tank to maintain reform momentum. (Full disclosure: The author’s father, Roger Kerr, ran the think tank for 25 years.) Their collective efforts provided support for politicians on both sides of the aisle to continue the reforms. Similar things are happening in the United States with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Though some fear Big Tech’s clout, tapping seasoned innovators could modernize Washington’s creaking bureaucracy.
Not every leading US entrepreneur is on the free-market bandwagon. Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban backed Kamala Harris; Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer regularly support policies that increase costs for businesses and residents in Washington State. Admirers cite philanthropic aims; cynics see a desire to stay in the good graces of progressive power brokers or assuage “billionaire guilt” through bigger government. Either way, endorsing higher taxes and more regulation makes it harder for the next generation of US founders to succeed.
When Myers and Trotter pushed for a smaller state, they faced bitter opposition. But, as one editorial noted when Myers passed away, they did so because they “fiercely loved” New Zealand, not because they craved applause. The same can be said of Musk, Andreessen, Ackman, and others, whose blunt criticisms invite scorn and sometimes retaliation—witness the recent attacks on Tesla dealerships.
Still, history shows that when entrepreneurs break their silence, nations can pivot. At America’s birth, merchant-farmers and shipping magnates shaped a Constitution that prized liberty. Today, their heirs are rediscovering that same duty to speak up. If New Zealand’s experience holds any lesson, it’s this: Business leaders willing to stand on principle can spark a freer, more prosperous tomorrow.
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