Apr 23, 2026
Why has America become so bad at building housing,
infrastructure, and major projects?
Brian Potter, author of The Origins of Efficiency and writer of
Construction Physics, explains why prefab housing keeps failing and
why there are no easy fixes to America’s building problem. We
discuss Katerra, California’s anti-growth turn, and the deeper
logic behind local opposition to growth: concentrated harms and
diffuse benefits.
Important Links:
Read Brian's newsletter Construction Physics here:
https://www.construction-physics.com/
Read Brian's book The Origins of Efficiency here: https://press.stripe.com/origins-of-efficiency
Learn more about Brian here: https://ifp.org/author/brian-potter