Reply #3: There is probably a grain of truth in it

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There is plenty of blame to go around, bloated overpaid management, poor planning and labor. Look, there were 265,000 employees in 1992 and 73,000 employees in 2007. That means there are 192,000 less auto workers working. Where did they go? I remember hearing over the last several years many took early retirements. Didn't the Big 3 offer buyouts to nearly all of their Union employees? It doesn't matter my point is many of those former employees are drawing a pension. Pensions and Health insurance are called legacy costs and they go into the cost of a car. The same thing happened in the steel industry, bloated overpaid management, poor planning and labor. The industry downsized over the 80's and cut the labor force by offering early retirements. Then in the 90's we were faced with the same thing, with our legacy costs we couldn't compete with the non-union mini-mills. Then in came a Union hatchet man named Ron Bloom. His job screw the Union members out of their pensions and dump them on the PBGC. If you check you will find that same guy involved in today's auto crisis.