Just a small note: the fact that people upvote or sticky that post speaks nothing to how many people are actually in a position to potentially feel suicidal about it, all it means is some people think others may feel that way.
That sub is about as volatile as the currency itself. Though some people mentioned buying bitcoin on credit and that could put you in a pretty bad situation.
No worse than buying material goods on credit, which a huge number of people do. If anything it's less bad, as at least with a gamble you might get the money back to pay off the credit. Of course, whether you value a TV or a chance of getting rich more is subjective.
edit: I stand corrected, good points below. But it is still very possible to use credit to speculate without it being a huge problem, e.g. if you could afford $x over 3 months but think you need to spend it all now to see the benefits then the slight interest on the credit just becomes part of your risk, but doesn't mean you'd be in trouble if it doesn't work out, other than losing money which is a risk regardless.
Most material goods are bought with the knowledge that their value will depreciate significantly and quickly. Investments are not seen that way so people will, foolishly, bet money they don't have and a good indicator of that is putting it on plastic.
Uh... yeah it is worse than material goods. Someone will give you $5 for a TV or you could at least enjoy kicking it down a hill. With a devastated, leveraged position in an illusion, you ain't got squat.
Once the bubble pops, there is 0% chance of rich or break even. You can wait forever, but the lack of diversification means you are 99.9% likely to be holding the thing that never recovers. A broad market recovers. A speculative vehicle is dead. No chances. Hold long :~)
Calm down, where was I treating it like a magical currency?
People mentioned buying BTC with, specifically, credit cards. Maybe I'm not too up on my commodity trading but how many individuals are over-leveraging themselves on their personal AMEX?
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1t5ofu/please_stick...