The Printer Ink Conspiracy
I believe there is a conspiracy among todays computer printer sellers and it surrounds the ink. Printers today come boxed cheap with a color and b/w ink. When you have to buy the ink alone you pay almost the same as you would for a boxed printer! - CONSPIRACY! Look at the old printers of the late 90s the ink cartridges of those days look like mop buckets compared with today's mini-dropper cartridges which hold so little ink. This is not unique to one brand... no this is all printer types - CONSPIRACY! Here is another, it easy to refil an ink cartridge on an old machine (yes I know it is not advised, but has not failed me yet), however nowadays if you try that your cartridge will bleed all over the place - CONSPIRACY!
I believe you hit this on the nose, in many cases it is a CONSPIRACY! But as my memory does recall, the price of ink has not really increased that much if any over the past few years. The printers however have dropped dramatically in price. The price drop has to do with the quality of the printer they are producing. If you take a look at the printers being sold today versus ten years ago you can immediately notice that the ten year old printer is still working years after the new printers have died and been replaced. Maybe they feel this justifies making the majority of the profit on the ink and not on the printer itself.
I would also mention that todays printers with the exception of Epson, all have a print cartridge that actually contain the print head for the printer as well. This is done for the idea that you will ensure a good print quality by not having dry ink build up on the print heads over time. This way if you do ever have one dry out you can simply purchase new ink cartridges and remedy the issue.
This is all my humble and personal opinion.