What the hell is going on with shops?

Charging book time and beating it is the only way a shop or a mechanic can make money. The only expense isn't labor / payroll. In any repair, especially diagnostics there is online resource material, pos system upkeep, tool upgrades, updates, etc ... Where do you think the money comes from for this stuff? For diagnostics alone I have 8 different scanners and really should have several more. They cost between $800 and $4500 each. They require yearly updates that average around $1500 each. All my techs have their own scanners as well. Everything has gotten so proprietary now that 10-15 years ago you could use a Snap On brick and a Mastertech and diagnose 95% of the cars. Now I have Snap On, Genisys, DRB II, Genstar, Mastertech, two different Bosch scanners, and two small Mac scanners. Then Alldata and Mitchell information systems. It costs a fortune. All you people complaining about costs are talking from an uninformed position. If the cost seems too high, get a second opinion. They will all usually be in the same ballpark.