I beg to differ; at the risk of appealing to authority, Article 23 of the UDHR [1] states that free choice of employment is a basic human right. Just because an injustice is mild compared to extreme cases, it does not mean it is not injustice.
Even if non-competes are only intended to prevent Wonka employees from selling recipes to Slugworth, the end result is vendor lock-in for humans. If your skill set involves deep specialization, the transaction cost of seeking new employment is abandoning your skills completely, and/or stalling your career for N years. Though I can understand guarding specific trade secrets, I don't think anybody has the right to dictate how another human spends their productive hours.
Even if non-competes are only intended to prevent Wonka employees from selling recipes to Slugworth, the end result is vendor lock-in for humans. If your skill set involves deep specialization, the transaction cost of seeking new employment is abandoning your skills completely, and/or stalling your career for N years. Though I can understand guarding specific trade secrets, I don't think anybody has the right to dictate how another human spends their productive hours.
[1] http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/