<story><title>Non Compete Clauses Reduce Innovation</title><url>http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/06/non-compete-clauses.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>lukifer</author><text>I completely agree, and yet I feel thinking this way misses the point: non-competes are blatantly disrespectful of human rights, and so on some level, the effects on innovation shouldn&amp;#x27;t matter.&lt;p&gt;If you take voluntary contracts to the extreme, it would include the ability to sell one&amp;#x27;s self into servitude, which is something that used to happen, in addition to the more violent and coercive forms of slavery that are more often remembered. Today we would consider the notion of owning someone, even with their permission, to be morally repugnant, and so we have defined limits on how much of yourself you can sell, both in the present and the future.&lt;p&gt;I understand that it is a problem to invest in people and have them leave. But them&amp;#x27;s the breaks: you don&amp;#x27;t get to have your cake and eat it too when you want to harvest the ruthless efficiency of a capitalist market. Maybe those employees &lt;i&gt;should&lt;/i&gt; have that much negotiating leverage, or maybe the greater economy is better off if they poach a few coworkers and start a new company. If you can&amp;#x27;t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen; someone else will be happy to take your place, and give your workers a good enough deal such that they have no interest in leaving.</text></comment>
<story><title>Non Compete Clauses Reduce Innovation</title><url>http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/06/non-compete-clauses.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>This blog post makes a pretty good public policy case against engineers and product designers being subjected to noncompetes, but I don&amp;#x27;t think the logic ports over very well to salespeople --- who, correct me if I&amp;#x27;m mistaken, are the most important targets of noncompete enforcement.</text></comment>