China’s social credit system seeks to tie each individual’s credit rating and privileges to his support for the Communist regime. Venezuela’s socialist dictator, Nicolás Maduro, has moved to import “perhaps the creepiest tool of repression” to his own country, writes Doug Bandow in this week’s Acton Commentary.

Bandow, a senior rellow at the Cato Institute and former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, writes that the metastasizing Big Brother program proves that government surveillance is an integral feature of socialism:

The system would essentially establish a “credit” rating for individuals and firms. Be a good citizen and you get financial discounts, better loan terms, and exemption from deposit requirements. Fail to meet the state’s criteria and your child can forget getting into a good university. If the government judges you to be socially bankrupt, you can’t buy a train ticket, rent a hotel room, or even use a credit card. … Companies could be treated similarly, with disparate treatment in terms of taxation, credit, and more. …

A decade ago, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez sent officials to China to learn about its national ID program. … In succeeding years, nothing much happened. However, three years ago, the 1984 nightmare reemerged. … With food scarce, medicine nonexistent, and inflation beyond measure, the Nicolás Maduro regime is spending $70 million to create a national database and mobile payment system.

Read the mentary here.

This photo has been cropped. CC BY-3.0 BR.)