Tuesday, October 11, 2005
In case you were wondering where all your tax money goes, I've created this short but informative summary. Let's examine a case-study; specifically, my job. As a systems engineer at a defense contractor, having both a bachelors and masters degree, I get paid a substantial salary. I say this not in boast, but simply to establish a fact. My current assignment requires me to travel from LA to Northern Virginia for 11 out of every 14 days. Since I work for a goverment contractor, the government subsidizes this travel. Here's an idea of typical reimbursement rates:| Lodging (per diem) | $153 |
| Meals & Incidentals (per diem) | $61 |
| Rental Car (daily rate) | ~$35 |
| Airfare (round trip) | $300-$800 |
If you do the math, you'll see that it comes out to about $2500-$3000 per 11-day trip. That's $5000-$6000 per month. I've been doing this for three and a half months now, which equates to about $20k spent on my travel alone. On top of my salary.
The biggest thing that bugs me about all this is that at the beginning of the project, I suggested getting a short-term apartment with a cheap monthly rate and saving the company money. My boss was all for it until the HR people shot down the idea, saying it "wasn't company policy." HR would rather let me pocket the difference from the per diem rates than take a little extra effort to save some serious cash. Oh, the best part about this whole scenario is that I haven't had any real work to do for about 3 weeks now. I fly across the country to sit and stare at my computer 40 hours a week. Awesome.
This money should really go to more useful endeavors, like education. I room with four teacher and hang out with about a dozen more. Trust me, they deserve it more than I and would actually benefit from it. I think I'll donate my per diem earnings from this trip to their schools.
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