system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: why do we have data plan limits?
gpt
There are some good points talking about how it's due to infrastructure and the cost of maintaining their systems and how they have to pay for the spectrum and all that, and while ideally that would be the cause of data limits it's not. ISPs make an insane amount of profit, and a few years ago the government gave the largest ones money to improve their infrastructure (which they didn't do a very satisfactory job of).

So if that isn't the cause then what is? Money. They want to make more money. If they set limits they can charge more for larger plans and charge overage fees. At least in the US it all comes down to making more money by screwing the customer.