A good share of the blame really has to go to the unions. According to this site, at least, the hourly wage of the average UAW auto worker is $25 per hour, or over $50,000 per year, and if you include the value of benefits, increases to $65 per hour or more than $130,000! And this includes a lot of people who never put a hand on a car. People certainly deserve a fair wage for the work that they do, but maybe Detroit could be more competitive if the people who sweep the assembly line floor were paid something more consistent with janitors elsewhere.