In short: no, it is not - to me. Begging on the streets, at the checkout register, pass the boot firemen at traffic lights, on television commercials, it's all begging.

Inform us about your cause, don't hit us up for spare change or impulse generosity. If we want to give you our spare change, we can do that systematically based on actual decision making, not impulse based on very little - probably inaccurate - information about where the money is going.