Imagine this situation: you are a talented engineer at a tech giant. You love your work, you are passionate about your ideas, and you want to push the industry forward. Suddenly, you decide to change jobs to continue growing and keep pace with the times. But then comes a surprise—your contract forbids you from doing what you do best. How is that possible?
Recent news about Google DeepMind employees in the UK, who it turns out are forbidden from working for competitors for a year after leaving, is a great reason to discuss why “non-compete” contracts are, to put it mildly, a very bad idea. And not just bad, but inhumane and contrary to the basic principles of freedom.
What is a non-compete? It is an agreement according to which, upon leaving a company, you pledge not to work for its competitors for a certain period. Moreover, you may continue to receive a salary during this time. Sounds almost dreamy, right? But it’s not that simple. In effect, you are sent to a “golden cage”: you get paid, but professionally you degrade. This is especially true in fast-changing industries like IT and AI, where a year of downtime can cost you your career.
Why is this unacceptable from a libertarian perspective? The core value of libertarian philosophy is personal freedom and the right of self-ownership. When an employer restricts your freedom to pursue your favorite activity, they are infringing upon your fundamental right to dispose of your own labor and talents. Furthermore, such contracts contradict universal human rights. They go against basic humanistic principles by restricting freedom and forcing talented people to either “sit on the bench” or move into another field, losing their skills and motivation.
The good news is that not all courts support such agreements. For example, in the US, the California Supreme Court long ago recognized most non-compete agreements as illegal because they “unfairly restrict a citizen’s ability to earn a living.” In 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to recognize non-competes for restaurant workers, ruling that there were no fair grounds to prohibit waiters from moving to competing establishments.
Other examples of inhumane contracts:
– In 2017, a British court ruled a contract illegal that prohibited nurses from leaving a public hospital to move to private clinics—the court considered this an infringement on the freedom of labor.
– An American court overturned agreements under which Amazon employees were required to reimburse the company for training costs if they resigned early—this was recognized as a form of debt bondage.
– In 2019, a German court overturned a football club’s contract that prohibited a player from playing for competing clubs in the same league upon leaving. The judge argued: “A human is not a commodity.”
Why is this important now? The world is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, biotechnology—these industries are evolving so quickly that losing even a few months can result in complete professional obsolescence. Are we really ready to allow corporations to control not only our present but also our future, dictating where and as whom we can work tomorrow?
The libertarian view is broader: freedom of contract is good, but freedom should not turn into chains. After all, freedom of contract ends where the restriction of fundamental human rights begins. One cannot sell or buy the right to someone’s future! And the authoritarians who disagree and are ready to forcibly impose such an order on others must understand that the rejection of universal human rights will inevitably work against them as well—for example, through the rejection of non-interference in their nervous system without consent, which is currently perceived as a given, but is actually someone’s goodwill and desire to observe conventions, rather than the laws of physics.
Let us remember: people are not resources. Talent is not company property. And a person’s freedom to dispose of their own life and career is sacred.
