Per Diem Screws the Driver

This is old news. It saves the mega carrier saves tens of millions of dollars a year they don't have to pay in Social Security contributions.

It's about the biggest rip off there is.

 

If you save the money your paying on taxes from per diem they you will have the money to buy your house.

Say you get $100,000 a year and pay 10% taxes you would pay $10,000

Say you get paid $100,000 and have $19,000 in per diem. That mean you would pay 10% tax on $81,000 or $8,100.

You just saved $1,900, so would you rather pay $1,900 more so you can go to the bank and get a loan or keep the money today and spend it. Who know if the social security will be around in the future. Who know if they raise the retirement age. The social security system is running out of money.

I would take the money now and I can do what I want with it. I can invest that money myself and probably do better then social security or I can spend the money.

 

Social security would be just fine if it is not raided by the government paying for their perks. We have more people being born than leaving every day so in truth it should be overflowing with money instead of the privileged ones.

 

Social security is a government slush fund. That is all.

 

Or the carrier could just pay you more and eliminate this per diem scam. That way you would have more money and Social Security, would be able to qualify for a decent house, would get a decent amount if you get injured through Worker’s Comp., got higher matches with your 401(k), and get a bigger unemployment check if you get laid off. It’s just one more way to screw over Company drivers

 

Social security was raided during the 70's and 80's It is now redeeming IOU's and assets to pay current benefits. At some point around 2026 it will consider a 24% mandatory cut of all benefits across the board because there are not enough workers paying in weekly deductions for SS to support the outflow of benefits. After the redemptions of assets deplete. This includes the disability, surviviors and SSI side of the program as well. (All benefits) Ive had by COLA (With the exception of the Obama years close or at 0% annually) more than that in increases.

When Congress was given the ability to run a Deficiet spending with debt against the future redemption from the Nation (The People, based on full faith and credit. Not Gold, silver or anything. Just a mental idea that Uncle Sam will pay you back some day. Eventually.) They simply filled a SSA office in Parkersburg VA (Data center) with IOU's and provided it with assets and so on to redeem from in the future. That future is here. about 30 years gone. I think they also tried to use the Stock Market to increase the amounts by 5 to 7% per year in some of the assets as well... but am not sure. Either way the redemptions will stop about 2025 when it's empty. They have been short outflow benefits versus incoming money from workers about 9 years now.

Social Securitiy's shortfall in paying out more each month than they take in up to 2026 and beyond (Once that year comes, the redemptions of assets stop because it's nothing to redemption) can be solved. Simply by tacking on between 15 to 25 dollars per week payroll increase in deductions from all active workers in the USA. This will assure that there will be a social security still standing when all of them reach retirement age. Congress so far has failed to take action so I hae been working on the assumption that 24% cut will happen in 2026 should I live that long. The only debts I deal with is medical. Everything else has been disposed of. What's left in rent etc I can take a 60% hit and still function. (Not very well. but it's there many will have essentially nothing. BK's defaults and seizures etc will double if not triple within a few months into 2026)

They started running short of money coming from wrokers 4 years ago and it itself was postponed a few years by not increasing COLA. Which itself was adjusted and gamed by playing with moving stuff to and from the basic 15 item customer price index from which COLA increases are determined. I could get into each one of these and explain them further but I think many of you will be please to know that I'll stop writing here.

It is easier to understand the growing overweight of SS when you consider that plus Medicaid and certain other programes exceed half or more of all monies budgeted by Uncle Sam (About 4 trillion each year, and a large percentage of that by borrowing) and getting larger fast (Especially medicare and medicaid) to where it's twice what we spend on the entire Military. on down through the rest of the nation's budget (Excluding VA, which has it's separate budget paid for in full each year, which they dare not cut...)

 

One of the many reasons I made the decision to just get off the road for good and stay home. It was a joke any which way you look at it. From my understanding, even more so now. This industry finds dozens of ways to #### OTR drivers, I just have no interest in partaking any longer...

 

To buy a house you have to produce payroll information. The net is all that counts, which will be higher with per diem. Where did you get your info?

 

Social security does keep a life time earnings list. I viewed mine after 2003 when it was time to find out the disability income.

My early years in trucking was really bad. I think the first 7 years was between 17K to 30K at best. Pretty bad. That would be unemployment based between firings and low pay. I eventually solved those problems in the last 7 years of trucking. However the inflation between the 80s and 2001 was pretty bad. The retail car I bought brand new was $7700 the same type of car with the same specifications retail today would be closer to 18000.

Making 15% more income for the time period used by them (They went back a number of years, not your entire lifetime earning) would only boost the monthly benefit a few dollars or so. COLA increases since then has been over 30% with the exception for the Obama years which was zero or near there. It will take me around 6 years to recover that with a expected 3 to 5% pending COLA each year based on the growing costs of CPI and GDP.

 

I didn’t realize it was time for this thread again.....