In the headlong rush toward socialized medicine in America, all sorts of arguments have been made. Here's one we haven't heard, and we find it one of the most unsettling.

Wikipedia says, "A hydraulic empire (also known as a hydraulic despotism, or water monopoly empire) is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy." But a hydraulic empire need not be based on water. It can be some other commodity precious to human life. Like medicine.

Larry Niven wrote a novel about a hydraulic empire based on vitamins, Destiny's Road. (1998) It should scare the hell out of you.

What is socialized medicine but a hydraulic empire based on medicine?

When one of us first wrote about this on Facebook in 2018, the post foresaw Soviet style direct political intervention in the health care system. "Sorry, Comrade, no vitamins for you today. You shouldn't buck the Party." "Your surgery has been postponed, Comrade. Comrade O'Brien took sick, and the party needs him." Or maybe Venezuelan style socialism.

But recent events show it doesn't take Soviet style authoritarianism. All it takes is political correctness and Critical Race Theory (CRT) as now practiced by a country's governing elite. Britain's National Health Service (NHS), under a Conservative government, may deny health care to "Racist" or "Homophobic" patients. While racism apparently is a problem in British health care, denying health care simply because a patient is racist is the wrong (but oh-so-politically-correct) solution.