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It's interesting to see people rail against China's social credit score which seems quite similar in function to the what we in the US just call a credit score.

It's interesting to see people rail against China's social credit score which seems quite similar in function to the what we in the US just call a credit score. People really miss the forest for the trees. I also tell people who support strong immigration enforcement that this sort of ID scheme would be quite fundamental to identifying citizens, but most people don't seem to want to hear it.

int_19h 3y ago
China's social credit score has a much broader application, though. In US, you do have some creep beyond the original intent of approving/denying credit (e.g. I've seen leases gated on credit score checks), but it's still much more limited. And since it's not government-mandated, you can still rent from a different place that won't do it. That said, yes, it's absolutely a problem in US as well, and people have been making explicit comparisons between the likely eventual state of our system and what China already has. > people who support strong immigration enforcement that this sort of ID scheme would be quite fundamental to identifying citizens Also, voting. It's rather ironic that the same people who demand voter ID tend to oppose universal free government-issued IDs.
- sokoloff 3y ago
  A lease of real property is a form of granting of credit.
  - BobaFloutist 3y ago
    No it's not, you pay at the start of the month for a month of access. A newspaper subscription isn't a form of credit.
    - sokoloff 3y ago
      Since you can’t evict someone immediately, it has very similar (pretty much identical) risks as extending credit. If everyone paid everything as agreed, there’d obviously be no need for credit scoring anywhere.
- cratermoon 3y ago
  I would say there's more than "some" creep. Think about how Uber and AirBnB use ratings to punish some customers, or how algorithmic pricing works, it's using similar concepts. If the objection is that these are paid services so it's still a financial transaction, my counter would be that in the US goods and services are overwhelmingly provided by commercial interests, because that's how the socioeconomic system works here. Even most services associated with governments are outsourced or provided through public/private partnerships. https://www.fastcompany.com/90394048/uh-oh-silicon-valley-is-building-a-chinese-style-social-credit-system https://www.fastcompany.com/90394048/uh-oh-silicon-valley-is...

int_19h 3y ago

China's social credit score has a much broader application, though. In US, you do have some creep beyond the original intent of approving/denying credit (e.g. I've seen leases gated on credit score checks), but it's still much more limited. And since it's not government-mandated, you can still rent from a different place that won't do it. That said, yes, it's absolutely a problem in US as well, and people have been making explicit comparisons between the likely eventual state of our system and what China already has. > people who support strong immigration enforcement that this sort of ID scheme would be quite fundamental to identifying citizens Also, voting. It's rather ironic that the same people who demand voter ID tend to oppose universal free government-issued IDs.

sokoloff 3y ago
A lease of real property is a form of granting of credit.
- BobaFloutist 3y ago
  No it's not, you pay at the start of the month for a month of access. A newspaper subscription isn't a form of credit.
  - sokoloff 3y ago
    Since you can’t evict someone immediately, it has very similar (pretty much identical) risks as extending credit. If everyone paid everything as agreed, there’d obviously be no need for credit scoring anywhere.
cratermoon 3y ago
I would say there's more than "some" creep. Think about how Uber and AirBnB use ratings to punish some customers, or how algorithmic pricing works, it's using similar concepts. If the objection is that these are paid services so it's still a financial transaction, my counter would be that in the US goods and services are overwhelmingly provided by commercial interests, because that's how the socioeconomic system works here. Even most services associated with governments are outsourced or provided through public/private partnerships. https://www.fastcompany.com/90394048/uh-oh-silicon-valley-is-building-a-chinese-style-social-credit-system https://www.fastcompany.com/90394048/uh-oh-silicon-valley-is...