filmscanners: PS 6.0 v. PS 5.0 LE v. Jasc Paintshop Pro 7.02

["S. Matthew Prastein" <smprastein@earthlink.net>]

I'm new to all this, just getting my feet wet, and have a very basic
question about image processing software.  It's clear, from all the
content here, that PS, and in particular PS 6.0, is the Rosetta stone,
an essential professional tool for achieving image quality, and
uniformity, in publishing.  

But what about lower-class people like me?  I'm an amateur, with very
modest equipment (an Acer Scanwit 2740S and an Epson 900), very much
in the learning mode.  Should I shell out the $500+ bucks, plus the
learning time, to get a grip on 6.0?  Will 5.0 LE serve me better, at
least in the learning phase and possibly for all time?  And what about
the Jasc program?  It receives rave reviews in popular (i.e.
non-professional) reviews, especially in computer publications, but I
don't recall any reference to it in this list.  Why not?  What
capabilities is it missing, that I really ought to have in order to do
quality work?

Put another way, how do I choose software that matches the
capabilities of the rest of my system, and yet provides a reasonable
path for future upgrade?