GORDON wrote: youtube and netflix may use half the internet, but i bet a dollar they're paying for it, already. They want US to pay for it, too.
Google and Netflix are using half the Internet, but they aren't paying more to ISP providers the way normal users do. Your streaming video does not come from Netflix's corporate office. Netflix pays big money to have server farms directly on the tier 2 providers. So the stream for your area is probably coming from the Chicago area tier 2 provider. So while one of the major telecoms is getting money for that, it's an entirely different business and entity than the one people use as their ISP. Doing this, Netfilx, Google and FB would get very litte benefit from paying to have their traffic fast tracked. They've already cut half the hop count or greater by having a farm on the tier 2 in that area.
Now the group that DOES get a big benefit from having their traffic fast tracked would be the new start up company that can't afford a server farm connecting directly to every tier 2 facility, but could afford a prioritized connection to these tier 2 facilities. Here you can see why it's in the big Internet content providers best interest to keep competition with smaller wallets in a position where they can't really compete. That's why Google and Netflix, etc are pushing so hard for this. You can see it throughout the last 100 years or so. Especially since government regulation ballooned up so large. Big corporations are fine with government regulations. They have the deep pockets to comply. They'd rather pay to comply and keep competition at a minimum than be innovative and compete.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren