Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> apparently didn’t get the memo: there’s a recession on.

The online DVD rental company is aiming for “at least” 12 percent net earnings growth in 2009 and will invest any “surplus profit” — terms not heard much on Wall Street these days — in growing its subscriber base and streaming content, Chief Executive Reed Hastings told investors on Monday.

The comments, made amid a storm of bad news from other U.S. media companies, came as the Los Gatos, California company posted a 45 percent rise in quarterly profit that even its own executives weren’t expecting.

“Our October forecast of slowing growth turned out to be wrong,” Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy admitted on a conference call with analysts. “We continue to see strong momentum in our business, quarter to date.”

And then there was this: McCarthy said so many Netflix users are streaming content to their PCs and set-top boxes that they aren’t ordering as many DVDs online. This equals fewer costs and more profits if this streaming thing takes off.

The relentlessly cheerful news continued: Netflix is still hiring! It is testing weekend shipping in some markets to speed service! It is within 0.4 percent of the 10 percent improvement it sought in its movie recommendation algorhythm!

On and on: More subscribers are upgrading to more costly plans than are cutting to cheaper plans! Free cash flow and gross subscriber additions hit a new record! “We will reach 10 million subscribers this quarter!” Hastings said.

The company says no data supports the idea that its growth is due to “cocooning” consumers who are trading expensive trips to the movies for DVDs — so rivals can’t even feel the satisfying schadenfraude of knowing that Netflix is profiting from misery.

What’s with this company? Don’t they know there’s a recession on?

Heartbreak is looming for the miniscule percentage of Netflix users who use the site’s “Profiles” feature that allows them to share a single account with another user of, shall we say, differing cinematic tastes.

A reported 1-2 percent of Netflix’s 8.2 million subscribers use the feature to maintain separate queues, or lists of movies, on the same account to avoid arguing over what movie to watch next. This is especially important in the case of married couples whose movie tastes differ vastly from “Terminator” for one to “A Passage to India” for the other.

The company said it will discontinue the feature in September to “allocate engineering resources” to growing its subscriber base and “Watch Now” content streaming feature. (And by the way, if you are one of those 1-2 percent you can “allocate” an e-mail to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. That’s him up above, holding the DVDs).

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company “understands” the disappointment of the subscribers who learned how to use the feature and considered it crucial in maintaining family home entertainment harmony — but they are still out of luck.

In September, the carefully crafted secondary household queues will be tacked onto the bottom of the primary account holders’ queue, Swasey said.

Ah the humanity!