Yes for recurring subscriptions the control should be firmly under the consumers control. Perhaps there should be a special recurring transaction type on credit cards akin to those in PayPal.
Startup idea? I would totally pay for / use a service that managed and paid all of my subscriptions to various things that also made it so that I could cancel any of them at any time with a single click (okay maybe 2 clicks) on their website and hear nothing more about that account.