otocols around which the Internet is currently designed (known as TCP/IP), which routes packets on a first-come, first- served basis in precisely the manner favored by network neutrality proponents, as an increasingly obsolete technology that is ill-suited to the increasingly varied and intense demands that end users are placing on the network (Telephony 2006, quoting David Farber). B. The Economics of Congestion The fact that the Internet is subject to congestion gives rise to a number of important policy implications. Perhaps the most sophisticated insights into congestion are provided by the branch of economics known as club goods, which was largely inspired by the pioneering work of Nobel laureate James Buchanan (1965). Club goods are goods that can be shared by more than one person. At the same time, they differ from infinitely shareable goods (known in the literature as pure public goods) in that consumption by an additional person creates congestion costs that cause the quality of the services provided to others to deteriorate. Buchanan's paradigmatic example of a club good is a swimming pool. Others have suggested that the theory also applies to a wide range of other facilities, including golf courses, theaters, laundromats, restaurants, and roads. 1. Congestion and the Choice between Flat-Rate and Usage-Sensitive Pricing One of the primary issues that has emerged in the literature is whether a club should charge a single flat-rate price for membership or whether it should charge a price that varies with the intensity of each member's usage of the club facilities. The See generally Cornes and Sandler (1996), reviewing the origins of the study of club goods. Buchanan's work is related to Charles Tiebout's earlier work on local public goods, which analyzed shared resources provided by local governments. Tiebout's model assumed that cities attempt to achieve an optimal community size, which is achieved when a city produces the bundle of services desired by residents at the lowest average cost. The posited "U