Dreaming of lime gerbils in a cheese sauce

I was recently asked why I am so much in favor of Net Neutrality.

The questioner wanted to know "Why shouldn't the telcos/cablecos be able to prioritize packets based on who is paying them extra for it? Why 'change the rules now'? After all, when congress handed all that money over to help build the Internet in the first place they didn't put neutrality in the contract."

My response:

There was no discussion of Net Neutrality because it was the standard at the time the funds were given. We didn't have anything in the contract at the time because it was a basic assumption that all packets would be equal.

The telco/cableco monopolies are the ones trying to change the rules.