> For $1/mo you get 10 pages (color included), and overages are 10 cents/pg.

The math works out when I think about it but for some reason I’m still floored by the fact that $12 only gets you 10 pages of paper for an entire year.

10 pages per month. So $12 gets you 120 pages.

Print shop down the road charges about twice that much but with no commitment. Bring your files on a USB stick, leave with paper copies.

There's no commitment with instant ink, either, and you don't have to deal with driving, parking, lines, or business hours.

What is this "driving" and "parking"? I walk around the corner from my home.

That's nice. I'm glad you have one of those by you.

facepalm duh

If I have to wait for a cartridge to show up in the mail, why wouldn't I just go to FedEx and do my printing there?

My Brother B&W laser printers never die and a $30 cartridge ($60 if you buy OEM) lasts a minimum of 2600 and will never dry out. I replace the cartridge once every few years and if I need color then driving over to FedEx etc. is much faster than waiting for something to come in the mail to replace an ink cartridge that will inevitably dry up if you're not using it every day.

Color is the biggie. Color lasers are expensive, around $300 or so last I checked? If we printed more, I'd definitely get one, but we don't (and likely never will). At our usage, buying a new color laser would take a few decades to pay itself back vs this subscription.

PS you don't have to wait for new cartridges. It's all connected, so they will automatically mail you a new cartridge as soon as the printer senses it's low-ish, long before it's totally dry.

Their customer service bot is generous too. I lost a cartridge during a move, told it I was running low and it automatically shipped me a couple new ones, no questions asked.

I don't really know how HP manages to make any money on this, but it's incredibly convenient. Probably they hope you'll end up moving to a higher subscription tier, but that makes no sense because if we printed more, we'd just get a laser. Shrug. I'll enjoy it while it lasts though!

In India, 90% of the inkjet printers use refillable ink tanks. The ink is way cheaper than in the US, there are no ink cartridges, print quality is the same, and the printers are roughly the same cost too (in USD).

Americans are dumb for accepting locked inkjet cartridges.

Being exploited doesn't come from being dumb. If anything, the way I see it, it's no coincidence if people just happen to be kept ignorant in a way that's beneficial to the systems that are also exploiting them.

We do have some printers here that are designed for this use case for what it's worth. Dunno if they are any good. Personally, I have had a Brother color laser for years.

What would you call someone ‘prone to be easily exploitable’, and ‘unable to see/resist exploitation’?

I’m sure there are other words that we can use too.

"Easily exploitable and unable to resist exploitation" is perfectly fine. We're not short on writing space here.

I don’t know, sounds dumb.

"Dumb" is an insult to someone's intelligence, as if the problem is them. Ignorant is a bit closer.

But that's not actually my point to be honest, my point is that the problem is not the people who are getting screwed over. It's the people screwing them over.

The people screwing them over rely on a target rich environment.

One could not exist without the other.

Uh huh. And what do you think causes a "target-rich environment" anyhow? Just people getting dumber for no reason?

Everyone being pushed down Maslow’s hierarchy of needs due to macroeconomic and political forces, generally. Possibly by a population wide event like a pandemic too, of course. And/or religious influence.

>In India, 90% of the inkjet printers use refillable ink tanks. The ink is way cheaper than in the US, there are no ink cartridges, print quality is the same, and the printers are roughly the same cost too (in USD).

No they don't.

Indian market sells same printer as they sell in US.

Difference is, indians refill those cartridges, reset chips, or use fake cartridges.

There are only few printers in market which can be filled for real.

Indian cartridges are cheap only because labor in india is cheap. If US had same labor prices.

But quality is just not same. I lived in both US and India.

‘Tank’ printers are everywhere. And literally comparing side by side with US versions? Same same.

What you’re talking about are the printers way, way cheaper than you can get in the US.