This is exactly the kind of knee-jerk entitlement I'm talking about. I'm guessing if connection speeds were 10x higher, you'd still be making similar arguments for why the slower one was also completely unacceptable. I'd love a 100mbit home connection as well, but we don't have those and signing up for cable is a very stressful way to pretend.
As for the current practicalities - first, two of these streams would fit in 6Mbps. Second, streaming is unnecessary for tv/movies, and I'm guessing you don't watch 24 hours of a day - upgrade to a non-streaming setup.
I probably wouldn't, my service is around 12Mbit, it is fast enough for me and I've rarely saturated it. I fully understand that (like CPUs and memory) the tech will grow to fill the space provided. You claimed a 1-10Mbit/second data connection was fast enough but essentially made the argument from the standpoint of a single user of that connection. Home connections are often multi-user so by your calculations they are not fast enough for most users.
Second: "upgrade to a non-streaming setup"
What services are comparable to Hulu/Netflix in terms of variety of content (though Netflix streaming seems to have poorer coverage these days, lost some contracts?) that is not a streaming service?
I saturate my 10/1Mbit all the time. I've had a 16GB disk image uploading for the past few days, and it will be going for a few more. It would be great if it was done in a few hours, but current consumer connections simply won't do that. If I had cable, I'm sure Time Warner would have throttled the transfer right down and it would have taken a similarly-stymieing amount of time. Either way I have to wait, but this way I'm not also tearing my hair out hating my ISP and wondering when they're going to jack my price or send me a nastygram.
As for entertainment, torrents seem to work for me. If you're looking for a branded service to contribute money to the destruction of the Internet, then I've got to wonder why you'd have any issue with the cable companies besides price.
So I like paying people for a service that satisfies a desire. That means I have to like cable companies too (who I've not dealt with in 2 years)?
Do you have another means of contributing to the artists, actors, directors, crews that make the shows/movies you torrent so that they can receive compensation and continue to make the media you enjoy? Or do you strictly avoid all media that isn't CC-licensed?
As for the current practicalities - first, two of these streams would fit in 6Mbps. Second, streaming is unnecessary for tv/movies, and I'm guessing you don't watch 24 hours of a day - upgrade to a non-streaming setup.