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Buster Container Co. is suffering declining sales of its principal product.  The president, Dennis Harwood, instructs you (the controller) to lengthen asset lives to reduce depreciation expense.  A processing line of automated equipment, purchased for $3.1 million in January 2011, was originally estimated to have a useful life of 8 years and a salvage value of $300,000.  Depreciation has been recorded for 2 years on that basis.  Dennis wants the estimated life changed to 12 years total, and the straight-line method continued.  You are hesitant to make the change, believing it is unethical to increase net income in this manner.  Dennis says, “Hey, the life is only an estimate, and I’ve heard that our competition uses a 12-year life on their production equipment.”

a)    Who are the people affected by the situation?
b)    Is the change in asset life unethical, or is it simply a good business practice by an astute president?