The real problem with our nation's economy

In 1992, my grandfather bought a Macintosh computer system, along with an HP Deskjet 500 printer. In 1993, he decided he didn't want the computer, monitor, and printer, and gave them to me.

That printer served me well for seven years, until I got my second new Mac in 2000 and bought a new printer to go with it. (The Deskjet 500 was still working okay, but it only had a serial connection, and the new Mac needed USB; also, I wanted color.) This time, I got an Epson. It never really worked well, especially because the cartridges tended to drip ink onto the rollers, which then left that ink on the paper.

So, after two years, I finally got sick of the Epson and bought...a new HP. It turns out their numbering system is way up past 500 now, all the way to 920c. Problem was, in setting up the printer, it kept insisting that the color ink cartridge was installed incorrectly.

Finally, I gave up and went to Office Depot to buy a replacement ink cartridge, to see if that one would work. It did, so now I'm going to call HP when I get around to it and complain that they put a bad ink cartridge in with my printer.

Now, there's some interesting economics at work here...

Price I paid for the printer, which includes a color and a black-and-white ink cartridge: $69.99

Price of a package containing a replacement color and a replacement black-and-white ink cartridge: $59.99

Had the replacement ink cartridge not worked, either, my next move would have been to buy a whole 'nother printer, because if that one had worked with the original color cartridge, I'd have a working printer, plus two sets of replacement ink cartridges, for only $10.00 extra (and Fry's Electronics would probably have charged more than $10.00 for returning the original printer to the store in an open box and with "opened" ink cartridges).

Clearly, at those prices, either the printer is priced too low or the ink cartridges are priced too high. Or maybe both.

Oh, the printouts from my brand-new HP Deskjet 920c look better than printouts from the Epson ever did, even when it was brand-new. And it was only 70 bucks. Another triumph for American engineering, or wherever it is this printer comes from.