Here's one example of what could happen:

Imagine if websites and internet based services could pay individual ISPs to work better and faster across their network than other services and websites.

So netflix could pay your local ISP to work better or faster than Hulu or Amazon video. This is all done behind the scenes without input from or consideration of the end user. So the free market is not deciding which services and websites thrive, but the ISPs are deciding before the market ever gets a chance. In this scenario, the big time corporations have a massive leg up to kill up and coming competition which cripples the market and innovation.

That's the best case scenario.

The Doomsday scenario is Netflix pays and contracts with local ISPs to be the sole streaming content provider, and thus competition is killed completely and there is no need for them to improve their service or content because it's all that's offered.

The check on this for some ignorant people is "a market competition of ISPs" but this isnt even feasible right now. Most of the country has 1 legitimate ISP or possibly 2. There is not legitimate ISP competition, Net Neutrality has nothing to do with that limited ISP competition, and i dont know what the solultion is. Although new fiber companies would be a good thing, I'd rather if Cox would just upgrade their decrepit infrastructure in my area.

One possibility that I've studied, though its feasibility is strongly debated, is to end the free broadcasted television antenna system. Open up all of that spectrum for bid and allow new massive wireless ISP companies to bring competition to the market.

I do know one thing: Giving content control to your ISP is a terrible thing.

I have no problem at all with ISPs charging users more for non-content based services.

Cox in my area offers different priced speed tiers. I'd have no problem with this as it is not a content based problem.

ETA:
On that note about competiton: I can't wait for ShortyRob to show up and claim there are hundreds of ISPs available and his area has 5 of them and quality of ISP makes no differnece at all as long as there is competition and his analogy is that a small 5 horsepower single person scooter is legitimate competition to a minivan or public bus system because at their basic level they all get people places and can operate as full substitutes of one another.

This post was edited on 12/4/17 at 10:17 am