It's about fairness. Most residential pipe is balanced to favor downstream bandwidth over upstream. In many locations using internet over Cable infrastructure,

It's about fairness. Most residential pipe is balanced to favor downstream bandwidth over upstream. In many locations using internet over Cable infrastructure, a node will share the upstream pipe. When a single user runs high-demand services from their home it can saturate the upstream connections and everyone suffers from the lag. Generally business users are provided SLA on speeds and availability and their traffic is routed differently to support that. In theory, your consumer price reflects a discount for not fully utilizing bandwidth, etc... I could flip your argument and say why don't the telcos just say fuck it and charge everyone $200+ for basic internet? I don't think Grandma who checks her e-mail once a week is going to be to thrilled about that shit.