RVPO Wrote:
"And at the top of the list of those businesses, I would like to know the one where he "personally, out of his own pocket" (from a thread about the high costs of prescription meds) paid all the medical expenses of his several hundred employees. I don't know about Reagan, but Bush 41 surely would have held him out as one of his 1000 points of light. And now he is a workamper in Alaska. Maybe he just needed to shed the bonds of his wealth and power and live among the common man. Truly a man to be admired."
Remember RVPO that you asked this question and here is your answer.
When I owned my Hotel/Restaurant and Bar and 3 other businesses in Cambodia, Paper distribution and Hotel Restaurant Supply and a construction company, I paid out of my own pocket for ALL the medical needs including births, accidents etc for all of my employees and their immediate families. I also paid to send them and their children to English school. No such thing as health insurance existed at that time in Cambodia. I paid for eye surgery and a prosthetic eyeball from the USA, I paid for major surgery and minor and all the everyday ills that come with a population living in a place like that. What did it get me in return?
A healthy and LOYAL workforce. A happy workforce. One that knew if their kid got sick they could afford to take him or her to the best children's hospital in the country and not have to rely on some quack Khmer "doctor" that doesnt know his you know what from a hole in the ground about real medicine.
Trust me this was not cheap and at one point it nearly broke me when a young man working for me got terribly beaten and hacked with machetes (a typical gang revenge crime common there) on his head and arms which required many surgeries by specialists and a long recovery. But he lived and he got the use of his arm and hand back ( a near miracle)
I simply did what I believe is RIGHT but it also had the added benefit of making my business more successful at the same time.
When I sold those businesses to return to the US I made sure that every long time employee was given a generous bonus. I could not have succeeded without them and their advice and loyalty and hard work. For my manager Vichet who had been with me since the beginning I bought a brand new Honda motorcycle...the equivalent of you getting a new Lexus from your employer.
We were just chatting with Vichet on FB yesterday His little Boy Colin (yes he gave him an english name) is getting very big now and we miss all of them very much. They were part of our lives for almost 10 years. Vichet always made A's in English school when he first started with me and his English is superb now. He is raising his little boy to speak English as well as Khmer.
RVPO you can Mock me until your keyboard wears out, it matters not to me. I know what I have done and what my experience is. You can believe it or not and as the Cambodians have a way of saying "is up to you."
