In my experience any moving part in a computer (fans, magnetic platter hard disks) will eventually fail, and printers are certainly no exception to this. Like the Office Space fax machine, all printers I've ever had to interact with have got paper jams or problems with paper feeding. I believe the printer at work actually came with a contract with a repairman that would come and do magic with it when it failed, which was often.
An ideal printer would have the minimal amount of moving parts. Currently printing consists of taking a slip of paper and moving it vertically while moving the printing head from left to right. Some companies are researching alternative printers, here's one which has eliminated having to move the printing head: http://silverbrookresearch.com/l-en/technology.html
Now if some company could manage printing entire pages at a time and somehow eliminate having to move the paper very much, things might actually work quickly and without jams.
An ideal printer would have the minimal amount of moving parts. Currently printing consists of taking a slip of paper and moving it vertically while moving the printing head from left to right. Some companies are researching alternative printers, here's one which has eliminated having to move the printing head: http://silverbrookresearch.com/l-en/technology.html
Now if some company could manage printing entire pages at a time and somehow eliminate having to move the paper very much, things might actually work quickly and without jams.