trickle down netflix

I got an email yesterday. I knew I was going to get it because the news leaked across the waves, prompting vents across the social networks. Netflix is going to charge me another $4 a month for my two DVDs and Roku addiction. Well… you know… yuck and yet… haven’t they just joined the club?

I get the upset and I don’t. It isn’t rocket science, people. Netflix is a business that ships product. I spend enough of my working day dealing with postage and its rising costs… so, really, this isn’t a surprising turn of events. Then… let’s blame the post office. Except the post office depends on vehicles that require fuel to operate. And in case you hadn’t noticed, it costs a bit more to fill a tank these days – even with the benevolent drop in prices the last few weeks. It’s still more than what it was a year ago.

So let’s do some math. Fuel costs more. So delivery costs more, increasing the cost of postage. The post office is a business that has to provide its workers a living wage… and doesn’t turn a profit as it is a government agency. Netflix uses the post office and in order to purchase their increased rates and offer their employees a living wage and still achieve somewhat of a profit to be a successful business, well it makes sense that prices are going to increase on the shipping part.

But maybe math is fuzzy. Aren’t we living in the world of Walmarts driving down costs so we expect to not have to pay for what we get or pay the person who delivers it? If an American employee demands the standard living wage, then why doesn’t the business do the savvy thing and employ workers out of the country who will work for pittance? As long as it doesn’t mean money out of our wallets and just money out of the people who work there.

Because, isn’t that the math of doing successful business? Cutting costs, eliminating spending… and who cares if the quality of life is destroyed in the process. Just so long as the quality of my couch potato dwelling isn’t affected.

I don’t know if Netflix is altruistic at all, if the price increase has any noble intentions for the salaries of all its employees – or just the dividends of its CEO and investors. Whatever the motive, they are thinking beyond the here and now.  Netflix has a lot of competition. A lot of costly competition, I might add. Having just moved and wrapped my brain around the ripoff that is cable television, forcing you to buy hundreds of channels just to get one and then adding a premium in order to get that other one, well, I’m not so sure that Netflix is the big bad media villain right now. But, I am not going to divorce myself from the addiction because this is my gateway to obscure British drama that will never find its way to BBC America or PBS.  I highly doubt that The House of Eliot is going to be streaming online any time soon on Amazon or iTunes.

I’m not a fan of defending big business or ripping off the masses so a minority can make a profit. I think you should know by now that it is not my way. But… there is cause and effect. There is a chain reaction of costs. There is a big bad wolf affecting the cost of everything from Netflix to food to driving down the street. And maybe the solution isn’t complaining and saying we will buy the same from some place else. Maybe this is a sign we should get off the couch, stop watching television, and go for a walk.

Or, to be a greedy business person wanting to boost her own profits, read a book.