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The US is competing with China not just economically but socially as well. If China succeeds in creating a more 'productive' and 'complacent' population with it

The US is competing with China not just economically but socially as well. If China succeeds in creating a more 'productive' and 'complacent' population with its policies, expect the US government to do the same. Remember the US still has the largest surveillance apparatus in the world. All they would need to do to implement a social credit system is to flip a couple of switches.

mindslight 8y ago
Those "switches" don't even need to be flipped by the US Government writ large. Boardroom meetings by "private" companies deciding to integrate ever more of the commercial surveillance infrastructure will suffice.
- wpdev_63 8y ago
  Are you talking about the B.E.N.S.[0] program? Then yes, companies can currently target individuals very easily/illegally using the fusion centers. It's widely known that american companies have this capability but don't really know the details... [0]:https://www.bens.org/ https://www.bens.org/
  - mindslight 8y ago
    No, I wasn't talking about anything specific. Just the general setup of having a large part of US surveillance performed by commercial entities, combined with the ability of public companies administering critical services to refuse doing business with arbitrary individuals. For example: see the "unbanked". Rather than fixing the banking system so that basic transactions do not rely on credit, it's easier to create a whole class of people that the industry tells to get lost.
    - wpdev_63 8y ago
      I guess people can be blacklisted. Google, Microsoft, and a bunch of others have blacklists from which they harass people and the banks I guess can refuse to process individual's transactions in their version of an orwellian wet dream but they threaten the company's integrity when they do that many times over. "O there just been a mistake at the bank" goes to "they are racially profiling me" very quickly. These very same programs target political activists. Also it doesn't help that there are decentralized alternative popping up everywhere. If monero(crypto coin) ever became mainstream, the world would be a very different place.

mindslight 8y ago

Those "switches" don't even need to be flipped by the US Government writ large. Boardroom meetings by "private" companies deciding to integrate ever more of the commercial surveillance infrastructure will suffice.

wpdev_63 8y ago
Are you talking about the B.E.N.S.[0] program? Then yes, companies can currently target individuals very easily/illegally using the fusion centers. It's widely known that american companies have this capability but don't really know the details... [0]:https://www.bens.org/ https://www.bens.org/
- mindslight 8y ago
  No, I wasn't talking about anything specific. Just the general setup of having a large part of US surveillance performed by commercial entities, combined with the ability of public companies administering critical services to refuse doing business with arbitrary individuals. For example: see the "unbanked". Rather than fixing the banking system so that basic transactions do not rely on credit, it's easier to create a whole class of people that the industry tells to get lost.
  - wpdev_63 8y ago
    I guess people can be blacklisted. Google, Microsoft, and a bunch of others have blacklists from which they harass people and the banks I guess can refuse to process individual's transactions in their version of an orwellian wet dream but they threaten the company's integrity when they do that many times over. "O there just been a mistake at the bank" goes to "they are racially profiling me" very quickly. These very same programs target political activists. Also it doesn't help that there are decentralized alternative popping up everywhere. If monero(crypto coin) ever became mainstream, the world would be a very different place.