The Erosion of the California Dream : * Poll Finds Troubling Outlooks That Only a Dramatic Upturn in Economy Could Alter

We have heard a lot from politicians in recent elections about “family values.” In last week’s Times Orange County Lifestyle Poll, “The Embattled Family” respondents offered a far-ranging portrait of their real concerns, unfiltered by anybody’s political agenda.

No doubt it can be argued that personal satisfaction is a personal matter. Maybe so, but the poll suggests larger connections between the social and economic environment, and how people feel about their lives. There were few results more striking than the apparent fallout of recession in California on people’s perceptions, and the shift it has produced in Orange County over the past three years.

For example, there has been a sharp drop from 43% to one in four of residents who say they are content with their financial security. And the effect of this uncertainty has taken a toll on satisfaction with marriage or love life, and on satisfaction with family and children. The state of the economy, it seems, apparently has a lot to do with the state of mind.

What is especially troubling, for ordinary folks and for business and political leaders as well, is the erosion of people’s expectations for the future of their offspring. Orange County, after all, has grown and flourished in the years after World War II precisely because of the optimism that this place in the sun engendered. An underlying premise of the Orange County experience has been that the future seemed limitless, and that the abundance of jobs and opportunities produced an environment that encouraged a sense of well-being.

It may be that a return to better times could produce a shift in frame of mind. But the current period finds the county altered in ways that will not make it easy again to stand back and just let the good times roll.

Interestingly, even as the storm clouds were gathering, there were some farsighted voices in Orange County calling for better economic development planning for the future. There was resistance to that idea, fueled by the misguided notion that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The county’s unemployment rate is still lower than other places. But inaction is no longer an acceptable course. Fortunately, groups like the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial League of Orange County, and Partnership 2010 are trying to position the county to take a more aggressive posture on the recruitment of business and industry. The fallout of the recession suggests that Orange County increasingly looks more like the rest of America.