GM

In 1953 GM President Charles Wilson famously said, as GM goes, so goes the Nation. So what happened that 50 plus years late GM went bankrupt. Many management mistakes were made over the years trying to maintain the status quo and just looking at the bottom line but many of the problems started when GM decided to be a good corporation and take care of its employees. Their reasons were not altruistic but predicated on protecting the dividend by not having a strike. To satisfy the unions they offered up legacy benefits that years later became to costly to meet and caused them to lose out to foreign competition. GM has 10 retired workers for each currently employed worker and the cost of these retirees is $2,000 per car. Companies like Toyota have very few retirees and thus low legacy cost. GM started it's downhill course in the early 70's and hung on until the recession of 2008 and that was the straw that broke the camels back.