The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for February, 2017

It would be entirely too easy to hang this week's Ass Clown award on a political recipient, as there are literally thousands of them clamoring for the attention. But I've decided to look in a different direction this time, and so I've decided to name as

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown

for

February, 2017

The Individuals Who
Determine the Price
and
Design the Packaging

of Printer Ink

There are a lot of products and services that have utterly unconscionable prices and a totally opaque system for setting those prices - prescription drugs, real estate, and airline tickets are a few examples - but the one that grabs me more often than any other is the price of the ink cartridges that feed my printer. Anyone who owns an ink-jet printer knows about the insane cost of the ink cartridges ... and will also join me in wondering why every manufacturer uses a different type of cartridge for each of its printers, so that if your printer dies and you're stuck with unused cartridges, they are useless unless you purchase exactly the same printer again ... which you can't, because they have a sales half-life of about three days. And you also know that most manufacturers* design their printers so that they will reject cartridges that have been refilled or which are of off-brand manufacture.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, for their cynical and greedy manufacturing and pricing systems, the February 2017 Left-Cheek Ass Clown Award goes to the manufacturers and sellers of printer ink and cartridges.

Think about that the next time you have to replace your cartridges.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* I'm talking to you in particular, Hewlitt-Packard.