The Reality of Orange County

In the world of reality television many of you have seen those glamorous television sitcoms that show beautiful, wealthy families, and their spoiled teenagers that are growing up in a life of privilege with endless opportunities. The shows display families living in enormous homes, usually along the beach, or in the hills with the ocean as their personal back drop. And all this takes place in the sunny warm beachfront communities of beautiful Orange County, California.

The families that play in these reality sitcom series give their children brand new BMW's as gifts for their sixteenth birthdays, over extravagant parties such as a Sweet sixteen parties. Some parents spend as much money for one of these Sweet Sixteen parties as some would spend on an entire wedding. Most people have never lived a life that seems so simple, and so fascinating.

I often wonder what my life would have been like if I did happen to grow up like that. Living a life of shopping sprees, new clothes, cars, parties, and extravagant vacations, and fully paid college tuition; this of course is care of mommy and daddy. This is a life that most of us could not imagine.

Orange County was ranked as the second most expensive place to live just behind San Francisco, coming in at number one. Orange County's median home price at just over $710,000 is for an average family home. That is more than three times the national average at just over $215,000.

Life for most people in Orange County is not a life of parties and privilege. There are many families that are living paycheck to paycheck. Most people call it the working poor. With the recent housing market at an all time high most families make just enough money to survive with their daily needs. With recent gas prices, at an average here in Southern California going at a whopping $3.60 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline.

Most are choosing to cut back in other areas such as food and healthcare. They have to decide if they are going to put gas in their cars or feed their families. People looking for roommates here in Orange County are at an all time high. All you have to do is open up the local newspaper to understand what I am talking about. There are families living in one and two bedroom apartments with more than one family just to make ends meet.

Many families are choosing to move out of Orange County all together, because of the cost of living. Recent student enrollment here in Orange County has been on the decline in recent years with the school districts losing their funding of government money due to the recent decrease in student enrollment. A trend that seems has only just started. Just ten miles from Newport Beach, is inland Orange County where most people living here do not live the life that are being depicted in those popular reality shows. The Reality is there are mothers sending their children to school hungry and many families are going hungry and go without the basic human needs. They have to choose between paying the rent and putting gas in their cars or do they spend the little that they have on food for their children so they cut back on food. This is the reality that a lot of families are facing right now. For most of us we do not live like the fancy woman of Coto de Casa or the families depicted in the shows such as Laguna Beach There is no middle ground here anymore. You have the upper class that can afford pretty much anything that they want and you have the working poor who are just struggling to make ends meet. The middle class is being entirely wiped out.