If globalism — the blurring of market boundaries for merchandise and labor — is such a great thing, how come it’s only a great thing when it helps companies, not when it helps consumers? (Don’t answer that — it was a rhetorical question.)
So now we have regionalized printer supplies. If you buy an HP printer, it detects (through all that consumer-friendly hardware) whether the ink cartridges being put into it were made in the same country or region. Seems there are significant disparities in HP ink jet prices between the US and Europe — and heaven (or HP) forbid that Europeans buy cartridges from the US through a third party.
HP insists that it’s not out to “make money” from this. It says that it’s a way to keep prices stable. The increase in HP cartridge costs in Europe is because of the sliding dollar. If the dollar rises in value, HP claims it won’t raise the European prices to match.
Riiiiight. And they have a beautifully rendered, archival quality print-out of the Brooklyn Bridge that they’d like to sell you …
(via BoingBoing)