Left Unmentioned

In All The Foofaraw regarding the Automakers Imminent Demise two factors seem to have gone largely unmentioned:
Unlike the little boy who takes his football with him when he leaves the game; the infrastructure and the technology possessed by the bankrupt (in many ways!) companies will NOT disappear. Not that GMFordChrysler has a lot to offer in those areas, but they do claim that they are on the veritable brink of major breakthroughs in quality, efficiency, and safety. The same brink they've been on for several decades. But then, with their feet cemented firmly in the twentieth century where they were spawned, what else could one expect?
The Fact That Dare Not Speak Its Name; one of the largest economic factors favoring foreign car makers, and greatly disfavoring the domestic folk, is Health Insurance costs. Those sneaky foreigners have (Gasp!) Socialized Medicine! They can make more profit with less labor overhead on every car they can sell.
Billarycare, as it was called, was hugely panned, and quickly discarded as being anti-Capitalist some sixteen years ago. All the major industry groups shunned the idea, in concert with the Health Insurance Industry. I'm guessing that industry in general, the little that remains, and particularly the automakers, would now welcome a plan to divest themselves of the cost of healthcare for both their current workers and also for their insured retirees. One wonders if the incoming President would like to take a swing at this one?