ISPs to intentionally degrade types of usage?

As the possibility of a tiered internet looms overhead, I've been wondering, aside from these deep packet analysis cisco routers I've been hearing about, how would an ISP 'make you' pay for, what now seems to be termed, "quality of service?"

Apparently there are laws written preventing ISPs from blocking traffic from a competitor to a user, but, as Jay Thomas of Narus, which has been developing network analysis technology for some time, admits:

"...There's nothing that keeps a carrier in the United States from introducing jitter, so the quality of the conversation isn't good," Thomas says. "So the user will either pay for the carrier's voice-over-Internet application, which brings revenue to the carrier, or pay the carrier for a premium service that allows Skype use to continue. You can deteriorate the service, introduce latency [audible delays in hearing the other end of the line], and also offer a premium to improve it."
-Taken from arstechnica.

Now this just pisses me off... To the point where the next suit-wearing exec I see, I'm gonna swiftly kick in the nuts. And btw, Narus' software is already being used in Germany to block VoIP calls.

The nerve behind these tactics is just baffling. Maybe instead of trying to weasel in extra costs they could go back to, oh, I dunno...making their current service better? For instance, maybe even on par with what they advertise? Everyone in the U.S. already expects to get only 50%-75% of the current speeds they pay for. And when you compare these speeds to those countries' speeds whose economies vastly underperform compared to our own, it becomes just shameful.

Anyone who sends me legit video of any one of these execs responsible for this trend getting severely kicked in the nuts... $5, cold cash.