Socialism in either the international or nationalized form always has the same ends, which is a system of power at all cost with respect to no one or nothing. China, one of the world’s largest socialist nations, has been pushing for a “social credit system” which will “rank” people based on an arbitrary series of characteristics, and has been progressively implementing it in society. According to a recent report, as a result of this millions of people have been banned from flights and train rides based on this “system”:
Millions of Chinese individuals and businesses have been labelled as untrustworthy on an official blacklist banning them from any number of activities, including accessing financial markets or travelling by air or train, as the use of the government’s social credit system accelerates.
The annual blacklist is part of a broader effort to boost “trustworthiness” in Chinese society and is an extension of China’s social credit system, which is expected to give each of its 1.4 billion citizens a personal score.
The social credit system assigns both positive and negative scores for individual or corporate behaviour in an attempt to pressure citizens into behaving.
Human rights advocates, though, worry that the arbitrary system does not take into account individual circumstances and so often unfairly labels individuals and firms as untrustworthy.
Over 3.59 million Chinese enterprises were added to the official creditworthiness blacklist last year, banning them from a series of activities, including bidding on projects, accessing security markets, taking part in land auctions and issuing corporate bonds, according to the 2018 annual report released by the National Public Credit Information Centre.
The centre is backed by the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, to run the credit rating system. (source, source)
The “Millenial” generation has been criticized for many things. It is true that many of the ideas they espouse can be explained in often times a less-than-malicious context, coming many times as a result of other circumstances including the continued effects of the economic destruction that affected the generation starting around 2007, habits learned from their parents that do not apply any longer, being told to acquire unsustainable amounts of debt, and so forth. However, the legitimate sadness of many of the Millenials is taking a malicious turn as it is being directly channeled into different forms of socialism. Be it International Socialism (Communism) or National Socialism, it all has the same end because it is different arms on the same body.
Thus one should not be surprised at one point in the future if one sees the beginnings of a “social credit” type system developed and applied in the US. The mindset is already present in the majority of the people under 35, and is shown by the increasing use of socialist language and sentiments in public political discourse, as it reflects the common man’s ideas just as politicians reflect the people who voted for them. The US government has already been testing social credit type systems with smart phones for military contractors, and may expand said testing to the transportation industry from that point.
Social credit in the US is not a far off idea, but it is already here, and the place where the Chinese are is just ahead of where the US is likely heading in the not distant future.