In the 2010's I had a project I'd do about once a year where I needed to print ~100 pages of directions that was mostly text with light-duty images mixed in for products I was selling. I was using my trusty inkjet printer, but over time the capacity of the carts degraded to the point I could only get ~80 pages of B&W printing out of a single inkjet cartridge. I had tried buying refill carts but they consistently failed and cost me time I couldn't afford to loose so I also gave up on non-authentic carts. So that meant I was having to buy two inkjet carts each run which pushed my cost per print up towards nearly $1 per page... for a product I was selling for $20.

I finally had enough and bought an HP full color laser printer for $250 around 2015 or so. Even with the degraded toner carts that came with it out of the box I was able to cut my cost per sheet down to about 25 cents or better. The last set of toner refills I got hurt my wallet at ~$450, but my price-per-sheet gets down to a dime per sheet on those. I'm thankful my printer proceeds these nutty subscription drivers though! I swore off ever using inkjet again after my first season of use on this laserjet.

But of course I'm thankful this printer proceeded these nutty drivers that disable your printing without a subscription. We've reached the end of the infinite expansion economic system and subscription services are the natural next step to that. Market forces have driven down the cost of durable goods to the point most consumer goods have been disposable for decades now. The next step is subscription models of everything to maintain similar profit margins. Likewise, CBDC's are a natural extension of the banking system as it hits the same growth limits. They outright state in their whitepapers that one of their core purposes is to "prevent recessions" by setting expiration terms on funds held by consumers which will "induce spending" as needed. It's all the same ball of wax.