Trump steals $400b from American workers: You get a noncompete, and you get a noncompete, and you get a noncompete!

mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11517556…

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Cory Doctorow

2025-09-09 17:42:02

Trump's stolen a lot of workers' wages over the years, but this week, he has become history's greatest thief of wages, having directed his FTC to stop enforcing its ban on noncompetes "agreements," a move that will cost American workers $400 billion over the next ten years:

prospect.org/labor/2025-09-09-…

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/09/ger…

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Trump Lets Bosses Grab $400 Billion in Worker Pay

By refusing to defend a ban on noncompete agreements in court, the Federal Trade Commission enables employers to suppress wages.

^{David Dayen (The American Prospect)}

Hey look at this

* Nate Silver's big list of grievances garbageday.email/p/nate-silver…

* Electronic Dance Music vs. Copyright: Law as Weaponized Culture drive.proton.me/urls/TVH0PW4TZ… (h/t Aram Sinnreich)

* Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’ theverge.com/news/773928/googl…

* Britain Owes Palestine britainowespalestine.org/

* A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons. bsky.app/profile/zohrankmamdan…

4/

#20yrsago Crooks take anti-forensic countermeasures newscientist.com/article/mg187…

#20yrsago Recording industry demands digital radio broadcast flag web.archive.org/web/2005101810…

#20yrsago Unicef/Save the Children sell out to recording industry web.archive.org/web/2005091403…

#15yrsago TSA forces pregnant traveller into full-body scanner web.archive.org/web/2010091023…

#10yrsago Help crowdfund a relentless tsunami of FOIA requests into America’s private prisons muckrock.com/project/the-priva…

5/

#10yrsago Your baby monitor is an Internet-connected spycam vulnerable to voyeurs and crooks web.archive.org/web/2021050505…

#10yrsago Inept copyright bot sends 2600 a legal threat over ink blotches 2600.com/content/2600-accused-…

#10yrsago FBI used Burning Man to field-test new surveillance equipment muckrock.com/news/archives/201…

#10yrsago Fury Road, hieroglyph edition imgur.com/gallery/you-will-rid…

#10yrsago Little Brother optioned by Paramount tracking-board.com/tb-exclusiv…

6/

#10yrsago Record street-marches in Moldova against corrupt oligarchs euractiv.com/section/europe-s-…

#5yrsago Germany's amazing new competition proposal pluralistic.net/2020/09/09/fre…

#5yrsago DRM versus human rights pluralistic.net/2020/09/09/fre…

#1yrago America's best-paid CEOs have the worst-paid employees pluralistic.net/2024/09/09/low…

7/

Yesterday's threads: Fingerspitzengefühl; and more!

mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11517012…

8/

Cory Doctorow

2025-09-08 18:37:33

Today's threads (a thread).

Inside: Fingerspitzengefühl; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2025/09/08/pro…

#Pluralistic

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Pluralistic: Fingerspitzengefühl (08 Sep 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

^{pluralistic.net}

My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:

us.macmillan.com/books/9781250…

--

My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:

us.macmillan.com/books/9780374…

9/

My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @versobooks, @beaconPressBks etc) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

craphound.com/shop/

10/

Upcoming appearances:

* #Ithaca: Enshittification at Buffalo Street Books, Sept 11
buffalostreetbooks.com/event/2…

* #Ithaca: AD White keynote (Cornell), Sep 12
deanoffaculty.cornell.edu/even…

* #Ithaca: Enshittification at Autumn Leaves Books, Sept 13
autumnleavesithaca.com/event-d…

* #Ithaca: Radicalized Q&A (Cornell), Sept 16
events.cornell.edu/event/radic…

* #Ithaca: The Counterfeiters (Dinner/Movie Night) (Cornell), Sept 17
adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/…

11/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #Ithaca: Communication Power, Policy, and Practice (Cornell), Sept 18
events.cornell.edu/event/polic…

* #Ithaca: A Reverse-Centaur's Guide to Being a Better AI Critic (Cornell), Sept 18
events.cornell.edu/event/2025-…

* #NYC: Enshittification and Renewal (Cornell Tech), Sept 19
eventbrite.com/e/enshittificat…

* #NYC: Brooklyn Book Fair, Sept 21
brooklynbookfestival.org/event…

12/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #DC: Enshittification at Politics and Prose, with Rohit Chopra, Oct 8
politics-prose.com/cory-doctor…

* #NYC: Enshittification at the Brooklyn Public Library, with Lina Khan, Oct 9
bklynlibrary.org/calendar/cory…

* #NewOrleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12
contraflowscifi.org/

* #Chicago: Enshittification with Anand Giridharadas (Chicago Humanities), Oct 15
oldtownschool.org/concerts/202…

13/

Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
app.gopassage.com/events/docto…

* #Madrid: Conferencia EUROPEA 4D (Virtual), Oct 28
4d.cat/es/conferencia/

* #Miami: Enshittification at Books & Books, Nov 5
eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-wi…

14/

Recent appearances:

* Nerd Harder! (This Week in Tech)
twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tec…

* Techtonic with Mark Hurst
wfmu.org/playlists/shows/15565…

* Cory Doctorow DESTROYS Enshittification (QAA Podcast)
soundcloud.com/qanonanonymous/…

15/

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16/

The most enshittification-proof way to get the Enshittification audiobook, ebook and hardcover is to pre-order them on my Kickstarter! Help me do an end-run around the Amazon/Audible audiobook monopoly and disenshittify your audiobook experience in the process:

disenshittification.org

eof/