There are dichotomies and synthesis in this sport which is only evident to seasoned investors; those of us who have seen people come and go, rise and fall - those who have experienced it for ourselves...What you are saying is true, but only if you have perspective, and only if you're able to read between the lines..

the 2nd association it resonates is the highly consumption-driven society we live in. in my area (coastal, urban southern california) i'm surrounded by 2 distinct lifestyles. there's the majority: seems like 95% of the local population who are renters, driving luxury cars, sporting fancy clothes, jewelry, hairdos, etc but obviously living paycheck to paycheck as exemplified by hardly a day somebody or the other is spotted  getting their car repo'ed by a camera crew. the rarer are the landlords, who in this area seem to be of mostly asian demographics (chinese, koreans, japanese) who live obviously very frugally: old 80s model sedan, oldfashion business cloths, always eating simple meal from home, seemingly never splurging $$$ other than into expanding their portfolio), my observance is relatively very few landlords in the area own relatively huge portfolios, each.with the advent of these infomercials and the internet (ie, BP) more and more people want to get a 'piece of the REI pie' and more power to them. there does seem to be this dream of rags to riches and while its ok to dream, do most people actually expect their life to turn around like that, as portrayed in most of the infomercials or even in the everyday setting where the masses living paycheck to paycheck, are spending their last expendable dollars not on depositing into savings acount, but blowing $20 on scratchies etc. in summary, is my observation reminds me of my days when i worked on wall st and the 'ra trace' was so obvious with dime a dozen stock brokers makin 6fig salaries at some point but blowing it on recreational drugs apparently costing thousands of dollars a pop to the point the next week they are broke again and that $ wasnt invested but wasted.  

This area is close to the sports stadium and consist of working class Philadelphians. 

This investor might be gambling that you miss the balloon date, he forecloses, he keeps the down payment, and he repeats.  

We are not in this sport just to remain even-keel.

Hey guys, i have just graduated from university, with a sport science degree.

I don't like the lack of control and the entire thing strikes me as a legalized gambling operation where the house has their thumb on the wheel.  

However, if you are chatting with colleagues at lunch, then this is simply you sharing outside interests, and no different than discussing sports or stock investing, or your family.Personally, I talk about REI - because I am excited.

This business is a little like professional sports in that some people just have natural talent for it and others don't.  

Interests include skiing, everything motorcycles, sports cars, photography and travel.