[msandford]

Precisely. Comcast sells me X megabits per second and then, if it's to Netflix, refuses to deliver it. Anywhere else? Sure, no problem! But Netflix? 2-3Mbps tops. And I'm paying for 50Mbps. And if I VPN to ANYWHERE, magically I can get full speed, full quality Netflix without any problem.

What Comcast is (and other ISPs are) doing is intentionally not spending the $10k-$50k that it would take to upgrade the peering with Cogent or Level3 so that they can deliver to me the bandwidth that they ostensibly have promised but which they are contractually not obliged to provide. And people think that's shitty, because it sure seems like a monopolist abusing their position of power. Perhaps because it is.