I think any designation of academic achievement and whether it should be used or not is more a function of the field in which you work. I have an undergraduate degree and two Masters degrees and work in the Energy industry. I do not include any reference to the degrees on any correspondence. Of course my degrees are two in finance and one in history. Now the engineers I work with all have the professional designations on everything. At the end of the day in the world I work in and have worked in for 39 years, I really don't care what your designation is, or what degrees you have, I care about your knowledge and how well you perform your job. I have worked with non degreed individuals who I valued far more than half of the PhD's I have worked with. Now outside of my job if you want me to address you as Dr., so be it, I will not be rude. While a PhD certainly warrants a certain amount of respect for the effort and dedication, I also tend to think that certain ones are easier to attain than others. A friend and I have had a running discussion that we could knock out a PhD in Education in half the time of a lot of others. My wife worked in the local school district and as a result interacted with many folks that had or were working on doctorates in education. Not being rude, but I met a lot of them and was not impressed. Also it seemed that everyone of them was basically attending school two nights a week while working to earn the doctorate. I have other friends with PhD's in other fields and they had to dedicate two to three years of their lives to achieve it. The had to teach classes, grade papers and live with almost no income. I am not saying that demeans the PhD in Education, but it does make you wonder.