2030 Is Closer Than You Think

Albert Brooks, best known for his comedy in movies as an actor and director, has written a novel titled 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America, which provides serious and thought-provoking yet enjoyable reading. The author’s vision of our country only twenty years from now is more negative than positive. Cures for cancer and several other major diseases have been found, extending the length and quality of life for millions of Americans, but the health care system has become so expensive that many people cannot afford their premiums or treatment without going into debt for years. The major conflict in American society is between young people, who are required to support the system, and “olds,” as those over seventy are called, who have most of the political power because of their numbers. Isolated attacks on older people by youth groups have begun to increase.

This conflict pervades the novel, developing several of its subplots, but the single most important event is the earthquake which destroys Los Angeles in June of 2030. This catastrophe sets in motion a series of events affecting all the major characters, many of whom represent the major groups in society. Obviously, the group includes the President (Matthew Bernstein), Susanna Colbert (the first female secretary of the treasury who becomes the President’s confidant), Max Leonard (a rich young man who becomes the leader of his generation in seeking to gain more political power), Kathy Bernard ( Max’s girlfriend, whose father’s medical care has left her in debt), Brad Miller (one of the millions of older people displaced by the earthquake), and Shen Li, one of China’s bright young citizens, who has made his country’s health care system affordable and effective in treating the largest population on the planet.

The major story line follows the rebuilding of Los Angeles, a joint effort between America and China, the only nation financially capable of such a task, which affects the lives of the major characters previously mentioned, and several other people related to them in one or more ways. 2030 has all the elements of a
good novel: an interesting assortment of characters, plenty of dialogue, plot
twists, and a believable vision of the near future, based on trends which began
in America decades ago and continue today. For example, “Behavior that could
get you thrown off airplanes decades earlier now got you thrown out of every
public building in the country. People just didn’t take outbursts.” The use of
legal drugs is more widespread and they have few or no harmful side effects,
but people have become so used to them that they cannot or will not stop taking
them. “Emergency rooms were factories. Going to a private physician meant hours in a waiting room with only a few minutes spent with the doctor.”

2030 is not the type of novel which is usually chosen for book groups or for high
school or college reading lists, but it should be because it provides many
topics for discussion and much food for thought.