Mining is just a different way to buy bitcoins.
You could deal with the exchanges, pay a premium at localbitcoins, use your credit card on various sites paying 10-20% or buy some Bitcoin miners and slowly accumulate bitcoins over time.
"Waahh...they have to pay for electricity". Ya...I have to pay the exchange to get my bitcoins. What's the difference?
Do you think it's all poor people with no incomes mining bitcoins? My co-worker who I know mines bitcoins has a six figure income. He mines because he wants to get a lot of bitcoins and enjoys hardware and technology. He can certainly afford to pay for electricity without cashing out his bitcoins.
Or you can just send your money to an exchange and pay only a maximum of 0.5% fee... lol. Don't be denial.
If you are mining as an individual you will end up paying more than 20%, some individuals only recovered 25% of what they invested in mining equipment...
And those that are doing OK are saving coins and waiting for the next gen 14/16nm FinFet machines to hit the market in early to mid 2015. As long as difficulty goes down that is a quite comfortable position. But it also means we might have a wave of coins on the market in 2-3 months time.
Those who are doing OK are probably cashing out, staying in fiat and then they will buy that new chips when they come to the market.
There is not point to hold bitcoin as an investment until this bear trend is over, if your plan is to sell them in a few months in order to get equipment. (And not holding longterm)
Unless you don't have a bank account (should not be a problem if you have enough money to pay for a lot a miners), or you are illegaly avoiding taxes.
