The Wonderful Reality of the Work From Home Phenomenon

Let me preface this by saying that I do not intend to rant.

That said, can anyone explain to me what exactly this 'work from home' business is all about? Or, to be more precise, this 'work from home' scamusiness? Ok, so I think I have just enough brain cells to figure out that if a company is asking me to pay THEM to hire me, they're either lame enough to think I'm actually that desperate... or they're lame enough to think I'm lame enough to actually believe that after I've been lame enough to hand my money over to them, they'll be lame enough to turn around and suddenly start giving me money. Which is just lame all around.

But what about those that advertise that they're legitimate. Which, in itself is slightly sketchy. You don't hear Macy's advertising that their a legitimate department store. But that's beside the point. I've been to company websites where the entire website is created for the jobseeker. In fact, the company claims to have been created with the sole purpose of providing jobs for people who want to work at home. I imagine their mission statement reads something like this: "This company's main goal is to provide jobs to people who would like to work at home. What kind of jobs? We are not sure. Where the money to pay them will come from, we're also not sure. What exactly does this company do? Why, we've already told you - we create jobs for people who want to work from home."

And then there are the transcription jobs - which, admittedly, actually sound like something that could feasibly be done from home. Yet, I've applied for those. After taking a test that resembles the English section on the SAT's, they send you an apologetic letter, stating that your command of the English language just isn't good enough for this kind of job. Now, I have this crazy idea in my head that I actually have a pretty good command of this wonderful language. And I did pretty darn well on the English section of the SAT's back in high school. But, I guess I must understand that this job does involve listening to an audio file and typing exactly what you hear, which, of course, only someone with a phD in English can possibly do. Oh, and salary requirements over $14 an hour will not be considered at this time.

Did I say I wasn't going to rant?