And now a word from Hatterasguy...
But on a serious note I think your right. As someone who does 95% of work on their house/car i've never understood this service economy. I know that most people can't do alot of this repair work by themselves....However some items have become so cheap that theres no services to repair them anymore. Case in point, you have a 5 year old tv that breaks. It would cost more to repair then to buy a new one so there are few if any tv repair shops anymore. Many a time i've seen perfectly good lawn mowers on the side of the road that had maybe one thing wrong with them but the owner still thought it better to buy a new one then get the old one fixed. There used to be loads of small repair shops in my area, not anymore. (Anyone remember the shoe repair shop in West Hartford where the Corner Pug is now?)