Whilst real world events have caused many people to focus on the social ranking aspect of the story, when I watched it, I thought it was more concerned with pri

Whilst real world events have caused many people to focus on the social ranking aspect of the story, when I watched it, I thought it was more concerned with privilege (and the loss thereof). The main character actually worsens her fate by acting entitled and being self-centered. Had she maintained her higher status, she both wouldn't have been in situations of pain in the first place, nor found it necessary to make a (here, social) effort to get out of them. In real life, being considerate to people serving you pays off in the short term, and in aggregate makes for a better society to live in (it is generally accepted in Western society that insulting your waiter is really rude and antisocial, for example). Interestingly, both people with low rankings (brother, truck driver) appear to have bad manners (because they are direct) but are nice people deep down; the point being the rating system is imperfectly implemented or optimising for the wrong thing. The parallel with the Chinese rating breaks down precisely because the show rating is focused on this shallow idea of visible manners whilst the Chinese system appears to correct fundamentally inconsiderate, widespread behaviour (like stealing a shared bike), just as credit scoring in the West was originally a means of increasing general welfare (by lowering rates for most at the expense of the few who game the system). The real parallel between the article and Black Mirror is this: the author, who is privileged (he already lives in a considerate society where everybody cooperates and the rule of law is a given) cannot understand the need for Sesame; upon losing that privilege (by moving to China with a blank score) and having to earn it back, he is upset just as the heroine of the episode was ("but I'm an honest guy, why should I pay a deposit to rent a bike?").