system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The cost of printer ink is price gouging and should be illegal.

**Note:** This is not exclusive to ink. The same problem exists with razor blades, for example, but my rant in the post will regard printer ink.

There is no way that these printer companies are paying anywhere near the price of gold per unit mass to fill these ink cartridges, yet they are allowed to sell them at $20 per cartridge.

The printers are also designed to say that the cartridge is "empty" when there is still some ink left.

I understand the need for companies to make a profit on each unit, but when it costs you 1/5 the price that you're selling it for, you can definitely sell them for cheaper.

CMV!
gpt
You aren't looking at the print companies functionality as it relates to you.

There are fundamentally two types of products.

The first are consumer goods. They're the shit you buy for home/private use. Private printers fall into this category. An essential component of consumer goods, is that they are easy enough for people to buy and turn a reasonable profit. Printers and ink are neither of those things. The barrier to entry on consumer printers is HUGE. To even sell a printer someone has to have enough money to buy a PC of some kind to utilize it. So at minimum we are talking about a $400 investment from a consumer to just own the opprotunity to print things (Assuming a $300 laptop and a $100 printer YMMV.) Most people don't have $400 for that kind of thing, and if they don't they have other problems they need to address, problems that if they need printing can be done more cheaply at your local office supply store for 10 cents a sheet. So really, the print companies don't care about you. Printers are a money making tool, they can really charge what they want because they are a money making tool.

The second are inward facing Corporate goods. This is who the print companies really give  a damn about. Every office building in the world needs a full stocked array of printers and ink. Companies will buy $1000 worth of cartridges and toner every month repeatedly without a second thought because they are mandatory to function. Then you have to consider print media companies. Everyone who runs a magazine or newspaper literally hinges on ink purchases.

So for the print companies to want cut you in on the price you're asking for would require them to make less money than they want. The fact that you get a $20 print cartridge right now is a godsend, because the ink companies can just sell it to any office that happens to need a few cartridges at less of an opprotunity cost. THe only reason you pay what you do is because any smart company diversifies its customer base, and that really is the only reason.


Personal Printers are a luxury good. You have plenty of options, just because you don't like those options does not make it price gouging and doesn't warrant it being illegal. Luxury goods are convenience items and in the eyes of the government you are supposed to pay for those.