I saw an article recently that indicated that Netflix was planning to raise prices. This rumor was confirmed by an email from Netflix indicating that my membership price is going up by $2/month beginning in December. According to the email, this “pricing update” will allow Netflix to provide even more value for my membership.

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, the first definition of the word value is the monetary worth of something. In other words, value is based on the price of goods or services. So how exactly is raising the price adding more value? If you raise the price of something without changing anything else, by definition you’ve actually lowered the value. Even if Netflix adds more content, more content plus a higher price may mean the value stayed the same (or went down depending on how good the new content is).

I was watching Netflix the other day and a message popped up on the screen advising me of the “pricing update.” I clicked the button to get rid of it, and within minutes I had an email from Netflix indicating a “confirmation of changes to your membership.” Now wait a minute I didn’t confirm anything. I was just trying to get rid of an annoying pop-up. Not like I had a choice in the matter, anyway. I suppose the ultimate choice is to cancel the membership, but I admit that there’s enough on Netflix that I deem the monthly charge worth it. But I will remain the arbiter of the true value, not Netflix.