a good post, NOT; lousy focus you have

It sounds awful, I know.  But you've just got to TRY to get past that uncomfortableness!  If you don't speak up for yourself, no one else will.  Don't sign that contract.  Call them up and tell them you need to raise your line rate.  Raise it a reasonable amount, and stick to your guns!  I know it's scary, but there are a lot of places out there hiring if your current place is going to walk all over you.  Good luck!

I read that BUSH only approved enough money to restore the levees for a category 3 hurricane (this might have changed in the recent past though) and when I heard that, I couldn't believe it.  The levees needed enough money to withstand a hurricane 5.  I know this because I live on the water in the SE for 30 years.  Yes, it's up to the locals and nobody was condemning your governor.  I do agree it's not a political affiliation thing.

But what I saw is that most of New Orleans (not the inner city) and outskirts are where a lot of poor people are/were and my feeling is this administration is not racist...they merely do not know how to deal with poverty and the poor.  That's VERY sad. 

Please consider when we were newbies many of us were fed a pack of lies about how much money we'd make right off the bat and how "easy" this job is.  I was told that from the RNs who taught us at the local community college.  I knew no one personally in the business to whom I could turn for the real story.  These people had NO idea of the real world.  It was suggested to me by several professors that I take this profession up as a way to make "easy money fast" to help pay for my RN courses.  I believed them since they were from the medical field.  My transcription teacher was the only one to level with us but back then it wasn't as bad as it is now.  I still had hope. 

I was lucky on my first job -- made excellent money on just 3 doctors, 1 specialty, templates for the most part.  I thought it was a dream come true.  MTing seemed to be all that it had been cracked up to be.  Then my employer dropped the account, 12 of us were out of work immediately.  I decided to go with a national so that that would not happen again.  I was given 26 specialties with over 100 dictators all at once, and it has been another universe altogether.  I am glad for the experience, but school never prepared me for THIS!  I am trying to be patient, wait it out hoping things will get better because I enjoy the job, but it is not what I was told it would be.

I now work 2 jobs, weekends and holidays included.  I spend my free time studying.  I have learned the "real world" of transcription by first-hand experience and reading the posts on here from you experienced MTs for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration. 

There really are some of us who are trying our best to become proficient at this and take our jobs seriously.  If we seem unreasonable in our requests at first, it might just be that that is what we were told we would receive and we bought it.  Never in my wildest imagination did I think you experienced MTs made anything even remotely close to what I was/am being paid.  It wasn't until I started reading this board that I wised up. 

You are right, we have to band together, not fight.  We're all in this mess. 

you said you'd wait until you become financially secure before getting married so you could then could leave him and be okay $$-wise.

I left after 13 years of marriage and we pretty much had nothing....my sanity being numero uno.  The stats are this....that after 5 years of divorce, women are in better shape than men financially and emotionally.  That's what I've read and that's how it also happened for me.  I was in better shape than him 5 years later.  So, don't undercut yourself.  We can make it on our own whether we have a man in our life or not!!!!  It's an old wives tale from post WWII I do believe that women are not *complete* without a man and that is a total crock of s**t.....in my mind/heart/soul. 

But what you said about cashiers is pretty right on but incomplete.  Where I live, cashiers are slowly but surely being replaced with YOU, yourself, scanning your stuff at the store(s).  Home Depot has been doing this here for 2 years or more and I read that MANY supermarkets are going this route.  Soon there will be PRETTY MUCH ZERO CASHIERS in this country.

But I don't agree with you on the fact that the USA or every MD/facility in the USA is going to want to offshore.  As I know it, plenty of US mds/facilities are PULLING THEIR STUFF back into this country.

Do not give up hope - I do not believe all of it will end up in foreign countries.........not 10 years down the road - by then, I do believe people are going to OPEN UP THEIR EYES WIDER and pull it ALL back here.  *grin*

But then, I'm an optimist - always was.....not delusional...just optimistic....glass=half full, never half empty.