If you have you noticed an increase in your expenses lately, in addition to the feeling you would get after being cheated out of a card game, it might not be because of your frequent trips to your favorite fast food chain.

Reality is, lately, more companies are making us pay more for less.

This could turn into a long dissertation on capitalism, so for the sake of time, let us talk about how Steve Jobs is a greedy rich man that wants to take all of your money.

Just so I am not sued for defamation of character, I would like to immediately retract that statement.

But it seems like electronic and telecommunication companies have been financially insatiable lately. Not only do we buy your product and pay a monthly subscription for your service; you want us to pay more for simple features that you could have easily included with the package as well.

“I spent $25 on my Internet data plan alone,” said sophomore biology major Tamyia Travis. “Unlimited Internet used to be a part of my plan, but now I have to pay more for it because I got the new iPhone.”

Just like her, a few weeks ago I upgraded my phone, but to one of the new Galaxy S products. Although the phone itself was a back-breaking $200, I did not mind too much, seeing as I desperately needed a new phone. But when I was forced to choose a data plan for when I used the internet on my phone, I felt like I was being ambushed by a gangster in an AT&T uniform. My previous phone had almost the same amount of features as my new phone and I had only paid $10 a month for unlimited data. Now I had to choose to pay either $15 for 200MB a month or $25 for 2GB a month. “No deal” was my initial reaction, but the only other option was no phone. So like any other victim to the smart-phone epidemic, I just paid for it and left quietly.

Angry and distraught, I searched for the reason behind this new requirement and somehow it led me to Comcast.

Comcast had been in a major battle with the Federal Communications Commission regarding regulations on Internet providers known as net neutrality.

“Net neutrality enables a user who pays for a certain level of Internet access, and another Internet user who pays for the same level of access, to connect to each other at that same level of access,” said Walter Czerniak, associate vice president of Information Technology at NIU. This is similar to the $10 unlimited plan I once had on my phone.

Ultimately, the FCC lost its case, and the word that the government could not control the Internet inspired anarchy among other service providers. Well, maybe not.

But it did lead to the spread of the idea that Internet service providers (ISP) could make more money by deciding on what they thought we should and should not have.

“Given the opportunity for profit or customer good, business will always go for profit,” Czerniak said. “The FCC is there to protect the public good.”

But it does not stop there. As reported by the New York Times on Aug. 4, Verizon (a large service provider) and Google (a large content provider) have been in partnership to propose yet another way to take our money. Their argument is: they will provide premium-paying consumers with premium high definition content. Not so bad, right? Well imagine what that could lead to: Paying to view certain popular sites they deem “premium”.

“It could be even worse, if the ISP owns content or makes agreements with preferred content providers, without rules, they could prevent you from getting to other content providers.” Czerniak said.

That would mean you would have to pay more a month to your ISP just to get on YouTube (for example). It would be exactly like how cable and satellite services plans are set up (i.e. paying more for HBO, Showtime, etc).

I really do not mind most things, but the Internet is almost like our birthright. Why should we have to pay more for something we already have?

I do not know about you, but the next time I see Steve Jobs..well umm…another Internet Service Provider commercial, I am going to make sure I send them an angry e-mail, right after I check my Facebook wall and browse through the top videos on YouTube, of course.

Hey, I might as well use it while it is free now!