A new spin on micropayments

I've always liked the idea of micropayments, but whenever I heard the mainstream media talk about it before, they away said things like, "You only have to pay $1.95 per article," or something stupid like that. They need to make it $.05 or even $.02. They need to make it so low you don't even think about it.

I checked out the video for Flattr. ... I don't know. I don't really like their model -- one sum that gets divided up in different ways depending on what you take in. Sure, for publishers it's better than nothing. But it seems a low flat fee would bring in more (and the consumer wouldn't think any more about it). Also, I can imagine people thinking, "I've only paid for 20 things this month. I'd better get my money's worth. Let me go out and pay for 20 more." ... Although I guess that would spread the money around in a wider way.

I guess it's kind of like cable TV, you only pay one fee, only the people with more popular content are directly rewarded by the consumer (instead of having networks negotiate pricing). ... Well, now that I think about it, it might not be a bad idea.