Some staffer takes a 30 second look into the problem, and decides that peering is *so* overwhemed that in order for everyone to reach everyone else the Government should step in and regulate it.
The 'Net gives some measure of universal connectivity because it was driven at its root by engineering. Who on NANOG, with any real world experience in networking, denies that maximum open peering benefits everyone?
You are missing the point entirely. We are not in some idyllic r&d environment where j.random hacker gets to play with his new ip router and maybe even connect two computers together. We are motivated by profit. If a certain position can maximize the profits of a company, it will rationally move towards that position.
This decision, and the arguments in favor of pay-per-peer, has nothing to do with engineering. It has to do with paper-pushers who wouldn't know the difference between peering and transit if it were on 500 power-point slides, because they look at MONEY. They see "bits per second", and who they came from, and conclude that those packets are not sourced on their network and therefore someone should be paying for them specifically.
You play engineering and revenue as a dichotomy when in fact it is a duality. In the "real world" that you like to refer to, it is more of a symbiotic relationship. Though it would be nice to be aloof in a lab and be lavishly compensated, I would venture to say that such a situation is not the norm. Let us get one point understood. You deserve nothing more than you pay for. You were not, by merit of your diction, infrastructure, prowess, or mandate from heaven, conferred a right to the resources of another individual or conglomeration of individuals. If you abhor these paper-pushers so, you are more than able to find the capitalisation to finance a global altruistic network where anyone can peer with anyone and we will all get along. It will be akin to the communes of the 60s. We can just hallucinate until the reality evaporates. BR