I'm thinking it has more to do with how businesses of all kinds are being squeezed to death. It's everywhere - in layoffs, in understaffed offices and service centers, in the rude and sometimes surly behavior of clerks or repair people... it seems to be rampant everywhere you look. People are nervous - worried about losing their jobs and being able to cover their business expenses. Frankly, there may have been graft and dishonesty on the part of the managers, but now I think it's fear. Nobody knows quite how the impending taxes are going to affect them, but I suspect we will see a lot of businesses going out of business in the next year or so, including some not-so-small ones, and we all lose when that happens.