Jumbled Thoughts On The Banning Of Non-Compete Agreements

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction" - Ronald Reagan

I know, I know, I am late to the party.

But if you are like me, you had no clue what just happened to your confidentiality. Read on.

On April 23rd, 2024, the FTC officially banned non-compete agreements.

Though I am amiable with this act, mostly because it benefits my professional life, a number of critiques have resounded with a formidable:

"So anyone can now take my company's idea?"

Well, Yes, That's The Point

The entire point the FTC is making here is that competition fuels the lifeblood of entrepreneurship. I believe it was Barack Obama who announced during his presidency that our profession as business professionals is to make life in the government easier.

In other words, with AI came a fruitful new way of mining data, but many forget that OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, is a business. Now, imagine you work for Google or Amazon.

(Or, roughly any AI-adopting platform out there)

Now, imagine you had someone who worked at OpenAI during its development. You have all of their information, not including classified documents but rather, something far more important: frontline training. Then, put that worker on top of Google's Gemini...

Yes, we have AI companies generating AI with other people's AI.

This is not a bad thing, just a change we will have to adapt to.

Healthy competition breeds success. It is why team sports are so fulfilling and what makes business so fun. However, this move indicates something else.

We're In Worse Shape Than We Thought

The move came from an unusual place. Though some states have already banned non-competes, it came from above us, and please, please, pretty please, do not take this politically.

President Joe Biden was technically behind this idea, though I feel it indicates that the FTC is realizing that the job market is the way it is because of non-compete agreements.

Keep in mind that the fall of non-competes does not entitle you to steal someone's property.

Rather, it affects the country itself: if the FTC is going to such a broad length to provide healthy competition among companies, what else can they do? Not to us, not for us.

Who This Benefits

Well, this is yet to be answered. I feel that it will take a decade to find out roughly how insightful, or equally erratic, this is. However, it shows the selective power we have.

Not many business owners dared question the FTC, Biden, or Trump. Rather, this has operated slightly under the radar, which shows how little people truly know about it.

I surveyed 106 Facebook executives a while back when this news first came out, and roughly 70 percent had no clue this was even in effect. That is what scares me.

I do not find it truly insightful that those who oversee our very freedom are capable of stripping a business of its right to say an employee cannot secretly infiltrate another for negative reasons. I am also passive in the sense that we had this coming to us.

When Stripped, Bend Over

So, I think this is smart and stupid at the same time—a bit like us. As we fall apart at the seams, I feel optimistic about humanity. I never try to identify negatives in others, but it is drastically frightening how little we truly know about the world around us.

With AI's landfall seems to have come a distant reminder of what started The Great Depression: financial indifference. As we pour our souls into the upcoming election, we must remind ourselves that, whether we like it or not, democracy is not a free ride.

But, if you feel wronged, or misrepresented, do something about it.

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