When you learn about enclosures [1] you cannot stop seeing them everywhere. The entirety of intellectual property is just an enclosure. Rather than promoting in

When you learn about enclosures [1] you cannot stop seeing them everywhere. The entirety of intellectual property is just an enclosure. Rather than promoting innovation it just promotes rent-seeking [2] or intermediation. Noncompetes fit this bill. They've been weaponized by private equity to medical practices. A PE firm will come along and buy up all the medical practices in an area. It's hard to resist that large buyout offer. The staff will then be put on noncompetes that essentially prevent them from practising in their area at all if they leave. This problem has gotten so bad that even places like Florida are seeking to ban medical noncompetes [3]. If you've wondered why your vet bills have gotten so large, well it's the same playbook [4]. Restraint on trade (such as noncopetes) is used to suppress wages and jack up prices for absolutely nobody's benefit other than the PE fund's investors. Absolutely no value is being created here so I'm glad to see the NLRB, the FTC and yes, even Florida take action here. I've previously thought that noncompetes may make sense in very limited circumstances and, if so, companies should have to pay through the nose. Example: when you quit the company has a one-time option to exercise that noncompete. If they do, they have to pay you out for the entire term. That payout? Take your highest earning year in the last 10 years. Double it. That's how much you have to be paid per year. Then we'll see how badly companies really need noncompetes. Even then I think I'd be just as happy if they were entirely illegal. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking [3]: https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2024/02/florida-legislature-proposes-ban-on-physician-noncompete-agreements https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2024/02/flori... [4]: https://stateline.org/2024/03/29/vets-fret-as-private-equity-snaps-up-clinics-pet-care-companies/ https://stateline.org/2024/03/29/vets-fret-as-private-equity...