The ability to manipulate accounting methods has always been worthy of analysis. Some countries allow a much more lenient handing of the process than the U.S. and have little to no guidelines. Their rationale is the fact that depreciation is simply the allocation of the same amount of cost over the same period of time so, ultimately, it does not matter how it is allocated during its life. Too, the tax structures may be somewhat different from country to country and choice of methods may not vary significantly from a tax standpoint. Do you think that it could be a good idea for companies to create their own "unique" methods as long as the results were not unreasonable?