Bitcoin Mining is very important, and we are all aware of it especially now with the recent madness of hard disk / update / Triangle / update. Many people have panicked and the price of BTC has clearly reflected that. But that makes you think, why are miners so important? Are they rich? What about the first miners? It seems like a lot of people want to get into mining right away, but do not even realize what they feel completely.
Long answer, yes (but I will not write papers here yes) so in short enough just for those who are fine with earning a few dollars. You definitely will not get rich and it's complicated.