Economic engines drive societies. How those economies prosper are determined by laws. Those laws are enacted to better society or in most cases to protect those driving that economy. Power comes from wealth. And more wealth creates more power.
When a majority of society agrees with these laws and determinations, civil unrest is negligible. However when that balance favors a limited few unrest becomes inevitable.
150 years ago when this country was moving from an agrarian economy to an industrialized one civil unrest reached its peak. The country split into two parts. A war was fought. We are still recovering from the war.
Today we are seeing a move from an analog-based economy to a digital one. When it is possible to become the next WhatsApp from your garage, basement or bedroom the existing “oligarchy of analog” tries to stymie that change. When you control a river port you control imports/exports and business in general. You control the flow of wealth. When you have your own data port control is almost impossible unless you control the speed of the river. If the ships don’t pay the fee for the passage you put them in the “slow” lane and make them wait. Higher fees get you quicker access.
The recent Net Neutrality repeal is an effort to control the speed of passage on that river. The more you can pay the quicker the access. The quicker your access is the “fresher” your product is in the marketplace. The “fresher” the product the higher price you can charge, then the more wealth you can accrue. It will be a slow death for those that cannot pay.
The only goal is to slow down the growth of this new economy so that the old economy has time to get its affairs in order or to remain in power. They know the change is inevitable but the old guard is not going to make it easy. They will fight to stop this transition by whatever means necessary.
In my humble opinion what we are witnessing is the start of an economic civil war.