In accounting we "capitalize" long-lived assets by putting them on the balance sheet and then depreciating those assets over time, based on some concept that each year the asset represents less value to the business and that each year a certain amount of the value of the asset is used up in the business processes. For accountants, it would be much easier just to expense long-lived assets at the time of purchase. Even though it requires more work, what are the benefits (and to whom) of the methods we use for accounting for long-lived assets?