Desperado
Don't you think you're being a little short sighted? Take a moment to think of the wives and families that are left behind when you go off and play all around the world. Extra allowances are VERY important to pay for such things as extra phone calls (20 mins a week is pathetic to sustain a relationship over 6 or 12 months - plus the system hardly ever works), postage, flights home during 96 hour passes, etc. The government owes service families a little extra for the sacrifices we all have to make to protect politicians' careers:
"I'm sorry darling, but Daddy can't be here for this birthday, he's away clearing up the mess of some botched conflict that we should never have been involved with in the first place. Yes, I know he hasn't seen your last 2 birthdays either. Maybe next year"
You, like many others, might not have considered these things when you joined - but marriage and a family can change one's perspective. The allowances (although pathetic) are very much needed, and sorely missed when they have to be spent on kit that should be standard issue.
YY