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###Ideal market vs. real market

###Costs vs. benefits

###Value of regulation = benefits - costs

###Relaxing net neutrality

###The issue of censorship

Ideal market vs. real market

Costs vs. benefits

Value of regulation = benefits - costs

Relaxing net neutrality

The issue of censorship

tl;dr- Net neutrality's core economic value is that it regulates a common service that everyone uses to operate in a manner that's generally palatable to all. This saves everyone tons of time-and-effort at a minimal opportunity cost.

1. Has a real economic benefit, e.g. by significantly increasing the positive correlation between desired market behavior and profit maximization.

2. Doesn't impart a large economic penalty on consumers, e.g. by minimally complicating the economic question of "Which ISP, if any, is right for me?" for the vast majority of consumers.

tl;dr- Net neutrality's core economic value is that it regulates a common service that everyone uses to operate in a manner that's generally palatable to all. This saves everyone tons of time-and-effort at minimal opportunity cost.

1. Has a real economic benefit, e.g. by significantly increasing the positive correlation between desired market behavior and profit maximization.

2. Doesn't impart a large economic penalty on consumers, e.g. by minimally complicating the economic question of "Which ISP, if any, is right for me?" for the vast majority of consumers.

3. Doesn't impart a large societal penalty, e.g. by minimally causing social/political/legal conflict, or, ideally, reducing such conflict. Both society and the market take huge hits whenever such battles rage.

The core economic value of net neutrality is to remove the extensive cost of considering highly complex options that could appear if ISP's were suddenly able to start doing whatever the heck they want, including throttling particular sites, users, etc., at different times, rate plans, etc.. Seriously, you'd have to get a Ph.D. in your local ISP's practices to even begin to make an optimal decision for yourself, and the market simply can't bare everyone spending that much time on a single economic decision.

###Value of regulation

The core economic value of net neutrality is to remove the extensive cost of considering highly complex options that could appear if ISP's were suddenly able to start doing whatever the heck they want, including throttling particular sites, users, etc., at different times, rate plans, etc.. Seriously, you'd have to get a Ph.D. in your local ISP's practices to even begin to make an optimal decision for yourself, and the market simply can't bear everyone spending that much time on a single economic decision.

###Value of regulation = benefits - costs