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HP executive boasts that its controversial ink subscription model is "locking" in customers
(www.techspot.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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The time for regulating these evil business practices out of existence is now. It’s clear they won’t do the right thing out of moral obligation, so they need to be made an example.
At the very least, no product (printer ink) should be legal to sell at a 2000% markup. Or design cartridges where you can't use up all the ink.
No, that time was about a century ago when the Great Depression hit and USSR was trying their hand at an alternative.
Our oligarchs, instead, thought the Austrian fellow had it going on.
While I don't disagree, there is also something to be said for being a savvy consumer. Stop buying their shit. Do your research. If people spent as much time researching their decisions as lamenting them, they'd be happier with their purchases overall.
I haven't paid for printer ink in over 10 years. I'm still on my starter cartridge for the laser printer I purchased that far back.
I’m in the same boat with my laser printer that I bought in 2014, but I still think we need new laws prohibiting predatory practices. Similarly, I’m savvy enough to successfully avoid scam calls, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think we need more regulation and harsher punishments for those people making scam phone calls.
Modern civilized society shouldn’t require everyone to be aware of all the new technological advancements that can hurt them. Our govt should be responsible enough to effectively legislate and punish the offenders, and we should not resort to victim blaming in the absence of such legislation.
Absolutely. But that involves being politically engaged. We have a government that doesn't serve the people because people aren't engaged. People spend time arguing politics but can't be bothered to vote twice a year. We have abysmal voter turnout rates in every metric.
Our presidential elections are the highest turnout, and even that is laughable, and that's arguably the LEAST important election. Mid terms are worse turnout than that. Off years worse still. And primaries, which I'd argue are the MOST important election because they let you change the core spirit of the two parties, have the worst turnout of all.
We need to vote.
Agreed 100%, but this would be under the FTC’s purview, and we don’t directly vote for them, so it’s a bit more complicated than simply “vote.”
Everything is ground up. Local elections first, and so on and so forth. By the time you get to federal, the spirit of the entire government will have already shifted more towards the will of the people.
Or, and bear with me here, consumers could wake up and not purchase garbage?
It's been plain for a solid decade+ that consumer inkjets are garbage and money pits. If people keep buying, why should HP stop selling?
Comes down to a basic question, "Does the government owe it to you to not hurt yourself?" Meh, sometimes yes, sometimes no. Crazy complex for a simple question, ain't it?
But if one can't be assed to take 5-minutes of research before purchasing a printer, seeing how fucked up HP and inkjets are, I can't help them, and it ain't the government's business to stop them.
Consumer protection from predatory practices is literally "government business".
What a horribly naive and flawed perspective.
Yeah, gambling, then lootboxes demonstrated citizens need to be protected from dark patterns. And their use by government officials (say by the George W. Bush administration) should be felonious.