Non-Compete Pacts Called Bad For Tech Innovation

carusoj writes in with NetworkWorld reporting from a panel at Harvard last week. It concluded that employee non-compete agreements have stifled tech startup development in Massachusetts, where the pacts are aggressively enforced, but failed to hold back the tech industry boom in states like California, where they are mostly unenforceable. We've discussed non-competes often here in the past; Techdirt made much the same point a year and a half back.

Comments

Re:apropos

[Wrath0fb0b]

We don't misunderstand the economics. We have notions of structuring the rules of a market around certain rights such as "An employment contract may not regulate what the employee does with their non-working hours." I consider it a fairly serious insult for another man to tell me to which contracts I may consent -- it implies that I'm unable to think for myself and handle my own interests competently.

Sometimes noble notions end up with a kind of condescending ring to them.

Re:Despicable

[amRadioHed]

Thanks for pointing out the obvious jackass. I know exactly what he meant, but this isn't the 80's and people don't call it Taxachusetts anymore. The tax burden in MA is right about average for the country these days. So the same goes for you: get a clue.