Errands

I'm off to go buy a fresh computer ink cartridge. Whee, fun, expensive.

What makes it even more galling is knowing, in part through my dad, who used to work for a printer company, that printers are really just gadgets designed to make people buy the real products, the ink and paper. But, ha ha, I'm going to buy either generic or from a competitor, whichever is cheaper.
Nyaaah-nyaaah...

Comments

[Sharon]

I always buy generic. In the past I've used bottles of printer ink (which come with a special syringe), which give good results (for black ink anyway) but are just sooo messy.

[Rana]

Yeah, I've tried those too. They really don't work that well, do they?

[butuki]

My brother in Boston never buys new ink cartridges... instead he looks for those sales offers for printers with extra ink cartridges and buys a new printer. He said it saves him a lot of money. It's insane!

[Rana]

Eee. Talk about hiding the production costs and recycling/disposal costs!

(I have to admit that I did buy a brand name cartridge. It had more ink than the generic, and the generics available didn't list my particular printer among those on the box.)

[LiL]

I usually break down and buy the brand cartridges too. They really do have more ink. And I like not having to rush out to get more ink quite as frequently.

[Jon]

When my ink cartridge ran out on my printer, I bought new ink... but then my colleague told me that he had a way better printer than mine (he had seen some of its prints) and that it cost only $30 more than the ink I had just bought. I returned the ink, threw out the old printer, and bought a new one. And it is better than the one I had before!

[Rana]

Now, see, that's just crazy. (I'm not saying you're crazy for doing that -- it seems like it makes sense from an individual standpoint.)

Yeah, I know that the whole idea of technological innovation is that the next hot thing is right around the corner, cheaper and better, but I worry about the long-term consequences of our upgrade-and-toss culture, and also about the hidden costs of this. Yes, it is cheaper to buy a newer, better printer -- and so I can't blame anyone who decides to upgrade rather than repair -- but is it _really_ cheaper, or is it that the low cost is subsidized by costs to the environment and the workers who built the thing? Methinks the latter.

(Again, Jon, I'm not scolding you; I'm grumping about a system that makes such wasteful actions logical -- even as I myself look forward to getting a new computer for Christmas. *sigh*)