Letters to the Editor
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The Paradigm Shift
Basic economics: lower the price and make it up in volume.
Corporate America's great idea?
Jack the price. Jack it again. Include a user fee. Tack on a monthly subscription fee. Add advertising. Add an additional user fee if you want to watch the TV show in color. Want sound with that download? Oh! Now it's a "premium" episode if you want sound! Jack the price again.
Thank God Apple is out there standing up to these guys!
If it wasn't for companies like Apple and others (who are barely keeping the corporate machines at bay) we'd all be watching 20mins of commercials per 30min sitcom -- paying $190 a month for 10 cable channels. Paying another $90 a month to get "local" channels. Paying another $199 a month to get internet access. Paying another $50 a month to watch "Monday Night Football" (that's a "premium" feature, ya know!) And on and on.
Just watch. The above scenario is coming. They know the cash cow is breaking up everything and then re-selling it to you individually.
Soon you'll be paying a fee per website.
Visit Salon.com seven times in one day? Soon Comcast will be charging you $90 just for internet access -- and THEN .25 cents per site visit! But don't worry. If you don't want to be charged per site, you can "upgrade" to the "Super User" package which costs a mere $375 a month for unlimited surfing. Seems like a resonable alternative to .25 per site
That's the money for nothing paradigm. Take everything you currently have and then break in down into a hundred individual components and attach a fee to it.
Money for nothing.