The World in 2030

The World in 2030 303
only to those who are able to pay for them, over and above
any contributions that they may have already made to fund
their healthcare services. In most countries, the wealthy will
be the healthy.
Beautiful, Clever You
But in our increasingly rich developed world there will
be plenty of people able to pay for healthcare and health
treatments and there will be more than enough of them
to ensure that research into new drugs and new forms of
treatments will not suddenly dry up as state-provided health
services crumble under the weight of the baby boomers’
retirement maladies.
By 2030 private medicine will be offering the muchenlarged
wealthy classes opportunities to change themselves
in some very dramatic ways. This trend is already well
developed as rich people pay for cosmetic surgery to enhance
or rejuvenate their looks and replace their age-discoloured
teeth with dazzling Hollywood smiles. Soon grey hair may
even be restored to its natural colour without the use of
dyes, or you may even be able to alter the colour of your hair
from inside your hair follicles. As New Scientist reported in
March 2007:
The particular gene variants that make our hair black,
brown or blonde remain elusive, but we do at least
have a better handle on a most vexing aspect of hair
colour – its tendency to go away. David Fisher’s team