China’s social credit score could prevent citizens from buying gas.
(Photo by Getty Images)China's new social credit system is a system that is understandable, but scary in the same sense. Being blacklisted can even prevent citizens from buying gas.
This social credit system is similar to credit, but it's more or less built to create a business trust. This system has some good points, but to a lot, scary points as well. China has what's called a "Skynet". It's a wide net of CCTV cameras that could be described as a real life governmental big brother. If you litter, messy yard, even gossip, you could blacklisted. These cameras are pretty much unavoidable.
I read an article where a man didn't pay a court judgement and was blacklisted. He's unable to travel and much more. This is creating an environment to make people simply do the right thing. If you do the right thing, you will be rewarded with various types of incentives. The biggest incentive I would say, is that you would be considered trustworthy and have a high social credit score. If your social credit score is low, this system would prevent citizens from doing day to day business because you simply couldn't be trusted.
I have heard stories of horrible people with great credit scores. This system will work in a lot of instances, but could be useless for some. For those with low social credit scores, they can pay money to the government to earn points. The money is said to go to charity. Of course some have their doubts, but when you need a high score just to buy a train ticket versus a bus ticket, you probably don't complain.
The point of bringing light to this is to ask one question. What if this was implemented in another country? What if this were implemented in the United States? If you add the skynet camera, that would most likely curb a lot of crime. When you know someone is always watching for a fact, your movements would tend to be different. This is something big to pay attention to. If you're honest, then great. If you're not, this would be the time to start making adjustments.
