It was a destination for immigrants and upwardly mobile lower middle class families. It was the home to major industries, from RCA Victor to Campbell's Soup. It employed some 36,000 workers in its shipyards during World War II and built some of the nation's largest warships. Camden, like America, was once an industrial giant. Camden is awash in guns, easily purchased across the river in Pennsylvania, where gun laws are lax. There are perhaps a hundred open-air drug markets, most run by gangs like the Bloods, the Latin Kings, and MS-13. The proposed slashing of the public library budget by almost two-thirds has left the viability of the library system in doubt. The city is planning $28 million in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25 percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half the police force. There is a 70 percent high school dropout rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the state's proficiency exams in math. The city's real unemployment - hard to estimate, since many residents have been severed from the formal economy for generations - is probably 30 to 40 percent. Summary: "Camden, New Jersey, with a population of 70,390, is per capita the poorest city in the nation.
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