Hewlett-Packard and other major tech manufacturers sell standard printer ink at a markup that makes it significantly more expensive per gallon than human blood, vintage champagne, or imported caviar.

A closer look

Hewlett-Packard and other major tech manufacturers sell standard printer ink at a markup that makes it significantly more expensive per gallon than human blood, vintage champagne, or imported caviar. The entire business model revolves around selling you a piece of plastic hardware at a massive loss, only to hold your ability to print a simple document hostage until you pay exorbitant prices for microscopic plastic cartridges. They even install digital chips inside the ink cartridges specifically to prevent you from buying cheaper third-party alternatives, ensuring their absolute monopoly. It is a beautiful demonstration of free-market innovation where the brightest engineering minds of our generation are exclusively dedicated to making sure your cyan cartridge forces your printer to stop working even when you just want to print completely in black-and-white