Boston Globe on GM:
"At the company's annual meeting in Detroit last week, CEO Rick Wagoner told shareholders that health benefits add a staggering $1,500 to the price of every vehicle GM makes. GM will spend more than $5.6 billion this year on health coverage for 1.1 million people -- a population greater than Rhode Island's. Yet of that number, only 160,000 or so are current employees: The majority are retirees and their families. And with GM planning to shed 25,000 jobs through attrition over the next three years, its already lopsided ratio of 2.6 retirees per active employee is only going to get worse."
Add in that we have completely different working expectations than most foreign countries, want higher salaries, don't take the competition seriously (i.e. make fun of small market cars), and you have a recipie for letdown.
Give Americans federalized healthcare and suddenly GM is back in the game.