Most folks want more homes, more plants, and more roads. Most of them also think it is too hard to build any of them.
That mix - high hopes about what could get built, gripes about what does - is the takeaway from the new Reagan survey.
Two in three voters said they feel good about the path of US work in medicine, energy, and AI. The mood cuts across party lines: 81% of Republicans, 59% of Democrats, and 57% of Independents.
The biggest shock is Gen Z. They posted a 50-point net upbeat read on whether US science and tech can build a better future.
"For a generation that's widely described as being pessimistic, I thought that was a really stark finding," Dan Rothschild of the Reagan Institute told Fox Business.
Gen Z is widely described as a pessimistic generation. The new data paints a much more upbeat picture.
For you, that public mood matters. Cash tends to flow to fields where folks feel good about what is next.
We break down where that cash is moving each weekday in Market Briefs. You also get a free class on how to invest when you sign up.
When the survey asked about building things, the answers piled up on the same side. On homes, 54% of voters said it is too hard to build them where they live. Just 9% said it is too easy.
Roads drew the same read. About 44% said it is too hard to build new ones. The same goes for plants at 43%.
Almost no one said the US is building too much. That is a long-run setup for fields tied to permits, zoning, and build work - homebuilders, raw goods, and REITs (firms that own real estate).
"No one feels we are building too much," Rothschild said.
For you, the survey backs a view that has been quietly building since the late 2010s. Permit and zoning blocks are a real drag on supply, which props up housing prices and slows the plant build-out that US policy has tried to push.
The survey also asked if voters still agree with Reagan's first speech line that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." 81% of voters said yes.
That count includes 69% of Democrats and 82% of Independents. On Reagan's money record, 47% said his moves were good for the US.
31% said they were not. The split runs deep by party.
Republicans back that record 78% to 4%. Independents lean good at 42% to 32%. Most Democrats - 52% - call those moves bad for the US.
Read as a whole, the survey points to a single mood. There is trust in firms, with less trust in the folks who sign off on what gets built.
The hope is there. The block is the permit desk.
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