Over a hundred years ago, shortly before World War 1, John D. Rockefeller had a brilliant, if megalomaniac, idea.  At the time he was already one of the richest men in the world, with his fast growing and booming virtual monopoly on the global petroleum market.

The year was 1913, when two very different but covertly related institutions were created. One was voted into existence by the US Congress when most of its members had gone home for the Christmas holidays, in what very much looked like a coup. I am referring to the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US, created and owned by a handful of private bankers,

The other institution was the Rockefeller Foundation, whose claimed purpose was “to improve the well-being of humanity around the world”.

Mr. Rockefeller realized that health or, more particularly, illness was a huge untapped market, that he decided to corner. Among other things, he is famous for saying that “competition is a sin”.

His thinking would have centered on chemistry, intent on utilizing the spin-off products and technology from the oil refining process to mass manufacture “one size fits all” drugs with which to treat common complaints and symptoms, such as pain. To cure anyone was never the idea. Remember: Each cured patient is one returning customer less.

Until that time, health care had not been politicised and seen as a government responsibility. In general, people had to figure out for themselves how to keep healthy, and how to cure themselves of illness.