The American Dream has slipped out of reach for most people, according to a CNBC/SurveyMonkey poll released after interviews conducted May 6–11 with 4,130 U.S. adults. Fifty-one percent said the dream is now out of reach for most people, while 45 percent said it is achievable only for some and just 6 percent said it remains within reach for everyone.
The numbers land in a period when Americans are still paying more for the basics that shape whether upward mobility feels possible at all. Roughly four in five respondents called the cost of living a major obstacle to achieving the American Dream, about three in five pointed to housing costs, and nearly half cited healthcare expenses. Many also blamed low wages.
Elizabeth Suhay said the poll reflects a deeper shift in how people see the economy. Americans today are less likely than people in previous decades to believe the system is meritocratic, fair or capable of delivering economic success to a typical hardworking person, she said, arguing that rising costs and stagnant opportunity are reshaping perceptions of mobility. In her view, the American Dream depends on what people earn and on how much things cost.
The finding also puts a sharp edge on the politics of affordability. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump has taken “significant action to improve housing affordability,” including an executive order blocking large Wall Street firms from buying single-family homes, a directive for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds, and efforts to reduce regulations to speed construction and expand housing supply. He said Trump “will not stop fighting” until homeownership is “within reach for every American.”
That pledge runs into the problem the survey identifies most clearly: housing is not just one pressure point among many, but one of the main reasons people no longer think the American Dream works for ordinary families. The poll’s findings also fit a broader stretch of declining optimism that scholars say has been building for decades, now compounded by inflation that rose to 3.8 percent in April and by gas prices that have climbed above $4.50 a gallon nationally, with averages above $5 in seven states. A recent poll found 70 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, versus 22 percent who approve, leaving the administration to argue that policy action is underway even as the public says the price of daily life is still closing the door on the dream.
