# "China’s 'Social Credit System' Will Rate How Valuable You Are as a Human" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380 "2018-02-07T18:17:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/1 "2018-02-07T18:17:35Z")
I thought this was weird enough to merit its own thread. [“China’s ‘Social Credit System’ Will Rate How Valuable You Are as a Human”](https://futurism.com/china-social-credit-system-rate-human-value/) > [@](#): > > The SCS [Social Credit System] seems relatively simple. Every citizen in China, which now has numbers swelling to well over 1.3 billion, would be given a score that, as a matter of public record, is available for all to see. This citizen score comes from monitoring an individual’s social behavior — from their spending habits and how regularly they pay bills, to their social interactions — and it’ll become the basis of that person’s trustworthiness, which would also be publicly ranked. > … > A citizen’s score affects their eligibility for a number of services, including the kinds of jobs or mortgages they can get, and it also impacts what schools their children qualify for. In this respect, the SCS resembles one of the most chilling episodes from Black Mirror’s third season. Incidentally, the show isn’t really known as a “feel-good” flick. It presents various dystopian views of society, but China’s SCS proves reality is darker than fiction. > > …under an SCS system, a person could be judged by his purchases. “Someone who plays video games for ten hours a day, for example, would be considered an idle person,” Li said. “Someone who frequently buys diapers would be considered as probably a parent, who on balance is more likely to have a sense of responsibility.” > … > Lal, however, disagrees: “How do you define people’s behaviors on a day-to-day basis? People do so many different things for so many different reasons, and if the context is not appreciated it can be misconstrued,” he said. > … Misconstrued? Context? We don’t need no stinkin’ context. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/2 "2018-02-07T19:07:02Z")
Sounds like it’s getting close to [“Nosedive,” the TV episode where everyone is rated by society on a 1-5 star system.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/3 "2018-02-07T19:08:45Z")
Edit: Wikipedia already beat me to it, that episode’s already been compared to the China system. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/4 "2018-02-07T19:17:52Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Sounds like it’s getting close to [“Nosedive,” the TV episode where everyone is rated by society on a 1-5 star system.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive) Watch that episode…then watch the movie (Tom Hanks major but secondary character) called The Circle…then imagine you lean conservative and post here on the SDMB. You’ll fear for the future for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/5 "2018-02-07T19:27:09Z")
[Whuffie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie). ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/6 "2018-02-09T21:42:28Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I thought this was weird enough to merit its own thread. > > [“China’s ‘Social Credit System’ Will Rate How Valuable You Are as a Human”](https://futurism.com/china-social-credit-system-rate-human-value/) > Misconstrued? Context? We don’t need no stinkin’ context. Doesn’t google collect this same information in the western world now? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/7 "2018-02-09T22:26:34Z")
> [@txjim](#): > > Doesn’t google collect this same information in the western world now? And your question is relevant to the fact that the Chinese government is going to do this, give you a score, and use it to determine what privileges of society you may enjoy _HOW_? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/8 "2018-02-09T22:37:11Z")
Don’t they punish you for being friends with people who criticize the government of China? You lose points if your friends criticize the government. Scary shit. I hope the Chinese people eventually rise up. Wasn’t the bargain ‘the communist party will give you economic growth and good jobs if you don’t fight the system’. But now the economic growth rates are starting to slow down. They are at about 7% now, but in 5-10 years they will probably be down to 4%. Will the public in China put up with this crap if GDP growth rates are only 4%? I don’t think, at least I hope not. Didn’t the other east asian nations transition to democracy when per capita GDP was about 15-25k? ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/9 "2018-02-09T23:38:55Z")
> [@txjim](#): > > Doesn’t google collect this same information in the western world now? Google sell aggregated marketing data. They also use individual data internally to target ads to those that seem to be most likely to be interested in a product. China is looking at creating a publicly accessible score of how socially beneficial/trustworthy/etc that you are based on all that data. The government controls the scoring algorithm and all your friends, neighbors, family, potential employers, potential dates etc can see your rating. Same types of data. Wildly different use. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/10 "2018-02-10T00:57:11Z")
How can they possibly think that this is a good idea? It seems to me that it will create a large underclass of people with nothing to lose. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/11 "2018-02-10T01:30:45Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > How can they possibly think that this is a good idea? > > It seems to me that it will create a large underclass of people with nothing to lose. Not if they decide that people with low enough scores are more valueable as parts than as people. ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2018, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/12 "2018-02-11T02:49:55Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > And your question is relevant to the fact that the Chinese government is going to do this, give you a score, and use it to determine what privileges of society you may enjoy _HOW_? Yeah, that came out more big brother paranoia than I intended, sorry. I agree that the Chinese are more likely to use the information for life-defining events than Google is by peppering my SDMB page with ads featuring embarrassing past product searches. What I did not see is where the CG is actually using the collected data for the stated purposes at this time. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2018, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/china-s-social-credit-system-will-rate-how-valuable-you-are-as-a-human/808380/13 "2018-02-11T03:01:25Z")
So, they’re finally catching on to that aspect of capitalism, too? Pretty soon, we won’t have anything special any more.