Luckily for me, I work at my computer and can live anywhere there's a broadband connection. The Northeast once offered a wide variety of jobs as well as high wages, and many people were willing to pay a premium to live in New Jersey, with its proximity to New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey offered plenty of blue-collar jobs, too, at U.S. Steel, several Ford and GM plants, and many other manufacturers.
But New Jersey politicians, in the good times of the 1980s and 1990s, gave away the store to (1) the public employee unions; (2) the chronic poor in the cities; and (3) the public schools, which have deteriorated badly over the past three decades. The state ran out of money years ago but maintained the charade by raising taxes and then by borrowing and using accounting tricks. It got to the point where New Jersey voters were forced to choose between a liberal Republican and a Bolshevik Democrat. Now the state's last hope is that Chris Christie can right the ship before it takes on more water.
Newark and Camden were perfectly livable cities as late as the mid-1960s. We all know what has happened since, though.
In the 2008 election, New Jersey had 15 electoral votes; it will have 14 in 2012.
Other states that will lose a vote from 2008 to 2012: Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York. Ohio loses 2.
Washington, Utah, Nevada, Georgia, Florida, and Arizona each gain 1 vote. Texas gains 3. (Note that these are all pro-gun states.)
California stays at 55 electoral votes even though more than a thousand productive citizens per day have fled the state over the past decade. That taxpaying population has been replaced by the tax-draining Mexican poor.