[Christ]

I'm probably a little partial on this idea... everyone I know (for the most part) either does most or all of their own work, or at least tries to do it.

It usually doesn't cost you any more to tow a car to a mechanic after you've messed up something trying to do it yourself, as long as you didn't grenade something seriously... but if you do manage to get it done yourself, you've learned something, and you've saved nearly $60/hour of labor in some cases, not to mention that you can get parts cheaper if you buy them yourself... and many mechanics will not accept a customer's parts, because they make money on the parts... (they tell you that they can't guarantee your parts that you brought, which makes sense, but many times, they don't guarantee the parts they put on either.)

I do understand that many people don't do their own work, and for those people, I feel that bump starting without learning to do it properly may not be a very good thing to do... in which case, I would agree, better you burn up the starter, than burn up the clutch.