What's different, however, is the level of coordinated surveillance that enables this scheme, as well as the centralized power of coercion that the state yields

What's different, however, is the level of coordinated surveillance that enables this scheme, as well as the centralized power of coercion that the state yields. Ad-tech companies, financials, silicon valley data silos, surveillance bodies, and most importantly the government are not legally able to coordinate on a level that would allow let them baldly track your purchasing history, your social media presence, as well as your private communications and then assign you an aggregate score! Besides the legal separation issues, their interests aren't nearly as aligned with each other as in the case of China so there are some checks and balances. Then to take that aggregate score and further coerce you by making loans scarce or jobs unavailable is a whole other level. What we're talking about is a totalitarian system of control over the population. Tweaked and targeted on an extremely personal level, and leveraging social pressure and shame. Say what you will about the malevolence of the US government and our capitalistic system but it is simply incapable of this scale of totalitarianism.