ON THE UNSUSTAINABILITY OF PRICES AND EMPLOYMENT:

The researchers used a RepRap printer and printed about 20 household items, from shower rings to iPhone cases, and found that the total cost of material swas about $18. (It's a bit of a change from this cool stuff.) The "lowest retail cost we could find for the same items online was $312 and the highest was $1,943," said Joshua Pierce, one of the researchers. The study projected that a 3-D printer could could save consumers between $300 and $2,000 a year. [...]

"The unavoidable conclusion from this study is that the RepRap [3D printers] is an economically attractive investment for the average U.S. household already," concludes the paper, published in Mechatronics.

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