It is pointless posting on this topic without saying which country you are talking about. The UK is the origin of more PPRuNers than any other, so we have to correct some of the points that are completely wrong for the UK in the original post from PiperIndian.
It does not cost "50k or more", in pounds. It costs from about £40k to whatever is needed in the UK, all flying done here.
It does not "take 2-3 years at best". It can be done in little over a year, even in 12 months if you are bright, a good pilot and work hard plus do some hour building in a more stable climate than the UK.
He is right that the JAR theory is not easy, and is sometimes boring. The job is not easy and is sometimes boring. If you are looking for an easy job with excitement all the time, you are looking in the wrong place. Try drug running or armed robbery
If you meet "lots of experienced jet pilots on the dole" in the UK then you are hanging about with people who have made some major foul up in their career. I could name 4 carriers just off the top of my head well-known in the UK who simply cannot get enough experienced crews to run the programmes they want to. Almost everyone I know who has a licence is now flying for pay, from instructors through turboprop FOs, one promised command soon after 2000 hours (so desperate are his employers for Captains) to one who is on his second job, second jet job in fact, having finished his IR about 3 years ago.
As for a type rating it really depends what you want. I know people who have got jobs out of it, and know others who have only paid when offered the job (some Ryanair, but others too). I also know others who have made different investments, like picking up the hours for single-crew IFR flying, because that is the flying they want to do.