Apple back on a roll

Today, Camden, New Jersey is starting a round of layoffs that could cut up to 383 city jobs (one-fourth of the employees). The exact number of layoffs depends on whether the public workers' union makes last-minute concessions. Life is already bad in Camden... More than half the 80,000 residents live in poverty. And with the potential loss of one-third of the fire department and half the police force, Camden – the nation's second-most dangerous city in 2009 (it ranked first the two previous years) – will get even worse. In 2009, Camden had 2,380 violent crimes per 100,000 – over five times the national average.

What led Camden to ruin? The same thing that is causing most municipalities their financial problems... unions. According to Porter:

About 40 years ago, during the 1970s, many of the union-led businesses failed – northern textiles, most noticeably. These businesses were replaced with union-free companies, mostly located in the South. The same has since occurred since in the airlines (Southwest), steel (Nucor), and in the car business (Toyota), where non-union companies were able to pay market-based wages and force union-dominated companies out of business.

The interesting part was the union's response. They fled into the state sector, where there isn't any competition.

Today, government employees are nearly 40% union represented, as opposed to the private sector where unions represent less than 20% of the work force. And local government workers (or those at the helm of the municipal debt crisis) have the highest union membership rate at 43.4%. You can see the official stats here.

Half of country's union members live in just six states: California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey. These states are also the states with the worst financial problems.
If you look at the spending problems at the state level, the deficits (as well as the income taxes) both started when the unions were finally allowed to represent state workers.

One Camden resident, Kelly Francis, president of the local NAACP, understands the problem. Francis acknowledges the city should have been shedding staff for decades... "It seems to me there's an entitlement mentality in the city of Camden. It's been at least 40 years that the state's been bailing out the city." This is an entitlement mentality evident in most states. They don't think the government will ever let them fail. We're about to find out...

To see the End of America video that started it all, click here...

Also, to read an exclusive interview with Porter Stansberry explaining how to protect yourself from the End of America, click here...