I have joked in the past on how people need to do odd and disgusting things to receive points from progressives. The points have no cash value, of course, but it makes you more of a prog. China has taken this to heart and has created a social credit system which will be in place by 2020. If you think of it in terms of brownie points, it makes more sense.
I know that this big brother move will appeal to the Maoists in Congress. Stand by.
The national government will reward or punish citizens based on their scores. Simply reading this blog would, for example, crash your social credit scores. The Chinese explain that it’s a lot like a financial credit score, except that you are watched and scored based on your political correctness. As you rise in social standing, you’re not held to the same standard that other people are. For example, if you’re the child of a Politburo member, there are different rules for you – as you’d expect. Apparatchiki get special treatment and forgiveness for blunders.

The “social credit system,” first announced in 2014, aims to reinforce the idea that “keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful,” according to a government document. 

The exact methodology is a secret — but examples of infractions include bad driving, smoking in non-smoking zones, buying too many video games and criticizing the national government.
Punishments include: 
Banning you from travel on public transportation. No airplane ride, or train ride for you.

Nine million people with low scores have been blocked from buying tickets for domestic flights, Channel News Asia reported in March, citing official statistics. 

Throttling down your internet speeds.
According to Foreign Policy, credit systems monitor whether people pay bills on time, much like financial credit trackers — but also ascribe a moral dimension. If you miss a bill, you’re bad, loss of points. Is there an appeal? No. The government is not wrong. 
Banning you or your family members from attending good schools.

In July, a Chinese university denied an incoming student his spot because the student’s father had a bad social credit score. 

Denying good jobs.
Getting you into or keeping you out of good hotels.

An unidentified woman in Beijing also told the BBC in 2015 that she was able to book a hotel without having to pay a cash deposit because she had a good score. 

Getting your dog taken away.
The eastern Chinese city of Jinan started enforcing a social credit system for dog owners in 2017, whereby pet owners get points deducted if the dog is walked without a leash or causes public disturbances. 
Those who lost all their points had their dogs confiscated and had to take a test on regulations required for pet ownership. 
Naming and shaming A  2016 government notice encourages companies to consult the blacklist before hiring people or giving them contracts. 

A prototype blacklist already exists, and has been used to punish people.

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23 COMMENTS

  1. While I do have a long history of paying my bills on time, the rest of my behavior would likely get me a negative score. Maybe they have it in place here already. My internet speed ain't all that great.

  2. Our social score is obviously in the tank. We've been told we will never get high speed cable at the farm…

  3. So someone with a high social credit score gets different treatment compared to someone with a low one.

    Hillary, say, gets a mild reprimamd but Roger Stone gets a travel ban and maybe jail?

    Well, he shouldn't have criticized the Party.

  4. The bandwidth is a genuine problem at the White Wolf Mine as well.

    I think that life in New China would be intolerable. They seem to have moments of clarity where people achieve new forms of freedom, and then the rulers fear the people and clamp down.

  5. LindaG, you're too feisty to get a good score under a totalitarian dictatorship.

    There's no way I'll ever see high speed cable again, no matter how 'nice' I am.

  6. Running against the Deep State gets you thrown in prison. Supporting them and loving them (long time) the way that Hillary and Bill have makes you a billionaire. Maybe your strategy there at the Compound needs to change? Maybe you need to embrace the dark side?

    The Deep State of the day called for Jesus Christ to be nailed to a cross. I think that you're doing ok, being just who you are.

  7. The potential unintended consequences are of interest. What happens to a society when every spark of "outside the box" thinking or action is repressed? The people who invent cool stuff are not usually particularly compliant people. They keep this up and my prediction is they will be back to pulling wood carts by hand in a few generations.

  8. I'm really hoping that the PRC loses it's race with modernization and experiences a nuclear civil war. It's pretty much the only scenario I can imagine that doesn't result in the relatively near future containing 1000 years of a PRC boot on everyone's face.

    The current crop of political types that seem to be generally succeeding here certainly have no interest in opposing it, and no other country could even try.

    -Kle.

  9. The problem with a nuclear civil war would be that it would stretch well beyond their borders and affect most of the Northern Hemisphere and thus most of the modern world. Other than Australia and New Zealand, the Southern Hemisphere is third world. (I would have added South Africa to First World countries but they are in a regressive mode.)

  10. I am sure the Democrats in their back rooms are drooling over the prospects of instituting the same thing in this Country. That is why they first need to nationalize everything. The Democrats have introduce as their first piece of legislation in the House H.R.1 which is intended to nationalize voting control and take away the 50 states control over voting. It makesg it so all those that are currently not allowed to vote such as felons and illegals to have the vote. To end any sort of voter ID that isn't easy to falsify.

    The Democrats are just crazy to be The Party with everyone else under their boot heel.

  12. The Chinese plan to steal all of the cool, innovative, advanced concepts from us. They may not like to admit it, but that's how they think at the top. Given our track record of miserably bad security (Sen. Dianne Feinstein D-CA's driver of 20 years being a PRC spy by way of example), they may be right.

  13. BillB, South Africa is dipping further into Third World mode every day. Black Africa does that.

    The old novel "On the Beach" by Neville Chute explores that scenario, where the Northern Hemisphere exterminates itself – but eventually it dips across the Equator. We all have to learn to live on the third rock until we develop faster than light travel, in which case, we'll f-up the universe.

  14. BillB, your point status is a negative number. Don't worry about rehabilitating yourself. I think you're marked for a work camp as soon as the totalitarian regime takes over.

    As to the notion of Democrats taking over, there is TRUMP. He won. And he had majorities in both houses of Congress. There is that. I'm not resting my laurels there. All I'm suggesting is that America hasn't been completely hoodwinked, and conservatives have the guns and populate the military and the police for the most part.

  15. LONE STAR PARSON- If you turn yourself into a goose-stepping Marxist now, you may be able to convince the overlords (your betters) that you were a spy in our midst. You could land a job as work camp/gulag/re-education camp warden. If that happens, remember the little people.

  16. Black Mirror (Netflix) had an episode with this very theme: "Nosedive." Basically the same as the Chinese system, you get social points for being polite, industrious, well connected. You lose points for even the slightest cause, and those with a certain score can board air flights first, buy sports tickets before lesser point folk, etc.

    It's about a 40 minute segment, very entertaining. The Chinese government must have a Netflix account.

  17. Maybe the PRC produced the episode. They have a burgeoning film industry. In order to make it accurate, the film has to be dystopian to the max.

  18. I've said before if I'm not on the first train to the relocation/reeducation camps I will be bitterly disappointed.

    Being a useless old person they would probably just do me in. Hopefully, with a bullet. Being strangled isn't on my bucket list.

  21. I don't think that you'll be on the first train to the camps. You're not enough of a curmudgeon. Oh, I'm not saying that you won't be runner-up — honorable mention. But the FIRST train? You just want a nicer bunk next to the stove.

  22. Oh, you'll be on the first train. As soon as a zampolit reads one of the Gray Man books, they'll jump you ahead of WSF in line despite his protestations that he deserves to be on the first train to the gulag.

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