Of Pensions and Government employees

Yesterday, a TV Channel flashed a news saying that the Armed Forces were unhappy with their pensions ( approximately Rs.10K per month for a jawan) as it was less than half of the pension that a Lower Division Clerk enjoys on retirement.
I have no grouse against the armed forces. They give their best time of the life to us civilians and let them get a higher pension.
What makes me bloody minded is the pension that even a lowest minion employed by the government gets. No wonder, it is said that you have to pay a bribe to get a lowly paying government job. Once he gets a job, then he is on to the bribe wagon. After retirment, a clerk should be getting a pension of 20K per month, which is very substantial by any yardstick.
As the sandwiched middle class, we pay taxes all our life and we get zilch from the government at the end of our working life.
During our working life, the government takes away one third by way of taxes. The government employee gets his bribes tax free, gets to live in government accomodation, gets free education and what not. And to top it, he gets a bloody pension!!
At this rate, one day, the government's pension bill will kill this country.
Why cannot the government get rid of this freebie? I know it is a rhetorical question, because the law makers in the Parliament will never do this. In fact, the MP's get a pension after serving just one term in Parliament!!

Today I start my blog. Frustrations Amalgamated was a Jazz Rock band, that used to play in India in the seventies. This was our college days. Having grown up on Camus, Ayn Rand, Jean Paul Sartre, Joseph Heller, Asterix and Jazz our tastes were exotic and our thoughts, idealistic. The interesting thing was that all of us were from middle class ( single room houses, 300 to 500 buck salaries) and frustrations were galore. It was the best of times. What has stuck with the group of friends from those years are the values.
My blog is a tribute to my friends. Maybe they will read, maybe not.
I will recount experiences from personal life, my views on anything and everything I feel strongly about.
Whilst I have spent the best of my working life in the investment and finance industry (which I belive is the most useless one to society, say even as compared to a plumber), having had no formal education so as to say, I believe that I am equally well equipped to comment on the world and its affairs with as much authority as any Head of a Nation.