'Toon of The Day: Netflix Is Screwing You Something Like This

A perfect illustration of Netflix' idiotic model of splitting its DVD and streaming services into two different companies (dude - I just want to watch movies sans the hassle!):

Via The Oatmeal

UPDATE: Via Instapundit: LESSONS FROM NETFLIX AND QWIKSTER:

You can get a sweet deal if you are the customer who gets marginal cost pricing. Medicare does this–reimburses hospitals at above their marginal cost, but below their average cost, so that private insurers have to pick up most of the hospital overhead. European countries do this with prescription drugs: reimburse above the marginal cost of producing the pills, but below the total cost of developing the pills, so that the US has to pick up most of the tab for drug development.

The problem is that as voters and as customers, we often get the notion that this can be extrapolated to everyone. So liberal policy wonks want to save money by putting everyone on Medicare, or some equivalent program that uses the government’s monopsony pricing power to get lower prices for everyone; thrifty customers think that everyone should drop cable and just pay $14.95 for streaming plus DVDs.

But everyone cannot be the marginal cost consumer. Someone has to cover things like development costs.

UPDATE #2: From DaTechGuy, some comments:

The first from Jeremiah Cohick

You’re continuing to make a classic mistake: thinking you’re something different than what everyone believes you are. You’re not a DVD company and a streaming company: you’re where I go to watch movies. That’s it. The future clearly is streaming, but by separating and charging more for access, you’re wildly less valuable to me. I’ll likely cancel. You haven’t listened to customer feedback. You’re delusional and you’re lost.

And the second from Patti Beadles

…So, from my point of view as a customer, you’ve just repeated the mistake of making my service less pleasant while offering me absolutely no benefit in return. The difference is that you’ve done it with more words and some conciliatory language from last time. In net, this seems even worse for me as a customer. A couple of extra bucks out of my pocket each month is annoying, but doesn’t really affect my life much. With this change, I have to make extra effort each and every time I use the service. That may be enough to finally push me over the edge.