In the short story “2BR02B” the government strips away its individualism, leaving no room for a person to make personal decisions other than death. The narrator summarizes the state of the world: there are no prisons, slums, insane asylums, cripples, poverty, wars, or diseases. The United States population is set at forty million people. Due to the miracle of modern drugs no one gets older, people must volunteer to die in order to make room for new citizens. The government is obsessed with finding a cure to all diseases, which ironically ends in more death. The narrator states, “Everything was perfectly swell.” This implies that there is no discontent in the world. That is deeply contrasted by the disposition of Edward K. Wehlings; the father
