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I don't see the contradiction. Amazon are afraid of their employees having more power. Their success was built upon an open market, but they are trying to prevent others from benefiting from this.

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I saw a comment on here a couple years ago or so that referred to this practice as "Ladder Licking". Lick the steps behind you so that nobody else can climb up the same ladder that you did.

Non-competes are usually about proprietary information / intellectual property. Amazon does not want someone learning their secret sauce recipe and then take it next door and start using it. That same non-compete also means you might not be able to get a higher paying job next door, which is a side-effect that only benefits employers.

This is incorrect.

A "Proprietary Information and Assignment Agreement" is about protecting proprietary information. It is illegal in all 50 states to use trade-secret information at a new employer. See Anthony Levandowski.

A Non-compete is about labor market, wage, and competition suppression.

See my original comment.

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