Are Pod-casters the Internet's Version of Street Beggars?

This guy is NOT a pod-caster ...
at least I hope not:-) 

FOOD**

I must admit that I like listening to podcasts ... free ones that is.
But I get sick of hearing pod-casters lay down the guilt trip to their "free" listeners, usually by saying something like, "for that extra cup of coffee that you could forgo each month, you could help keep this podcast afloat."
As if I sit at a friggin' Starbucks all day every day having nothing better to do than drink shit sugared coffee.
If I gave every free podcast I liked that cost of a cup of coffee each month, then I would be on the street and begging myself for FOOD**.
It would be interesting to know how many pod-casts these begging pod-casters support themselves, wouldn't it?-)
I think one of the most cringe-worthy cases I've heard recently is Whitley Strieber begging on his 'Dreamland' podcast, which kind of makes "free" Dreamlanders feel like nothing but a barnacle clinging on to the mother-ship -
Dreamland?

There's a lot of good "free" podcasts out there on the net, and the reason they are good is because they are free.
Would I find them as good if I was to pay the price of a cup of coffee each month to listen to the content?
Probably not, because I would be expecting something better for my money than what I could listen to for free on another podcast.
If you need money to keep going then get advertisers to support you (if you can that is), because I have no trouble skipping the ads on most podcasts that use them.
Bernie Beitman's pod-cast 'Connecting with Coincidence' is one of the worst examples of annoying advertising in a podcast I can think of, but most times I can skip those ad breaks anyway, and pretty much always do, thank heavens.

It's a jungle out there in the podcast world and it's only going to get bigger ... unlike the Amazon (jungle that is, not company:-), so while it would be a shame to hear some podcasts go silent because of that FOOD** equivalent their hosts couldn't beg off those "free" rolling in cash listeners of theirs, then so be it I say.

And to all of my free readers out there, if you like what I write on this blog, then how about thinking twice about that next coffee you don't really need to drink and send me the money to help pay for my monthly internet bill?-)
Or at least give this 2 and a half star post a 5 star rating and review somewhere on the net.
If not feel free to remain a free reader of this blog you cheapskates.
Come to think of it, free readers are all I have, so I don't know what I would do without the both of you.
I guess it would just be the both of me reading my blog in that case;-)