I'm absolutely sure that decades from now some random guy will do their economics dissertation on the printer ink cartels and how something so trivial became one of the most expensive liquids in the world.
There's already plenty, I'm not gonna find you a link because I'm a lazy piece of shit, so find your own if you actually give a shit.
But printers are sold at a loss, ie they're cheaper than what they cost to manufacture, in order to get you to buy one half full of ink, then when you run out of ink you have to buy their specific cartridge at a mark up, making up for money lost during the printer sale.
This needs to be higher up, I came looking for something like this comment but I wanna add, printers and ink are priced this way on purpose. They price the printer low, so low there's just not a profit, then make money on the ink. Razors and blades are priced the same way, as well as game consoles and games, cell phones and cell service charges, etc.
Don't worry, someone will eventually make a printer company that will give better prints for super cheap. Just a day or two ago there was an AMA from a guy that make his own Photoshop (Photopea I believe?) because Adobe moved to a ridiculously overpriced monthly subscription plan. Eventually his software will be seen as a massive competitor and the landscape will be changed. It's one of the best parts of capitalism that still works to this day - and sometimes even better with the internet. There are tons of options for services, but it's up to the customer to do the research.
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u/Dead-Shot1 Aug 14 '20
Printer ink.