Gyroscopic Investing

In China, every citizen is being assigned a credit score that drops if a person buys and plays video games, or posts political comments online “without prior permission," or even if social media "friends" do so. The ACLU said the credit rating system, an Orwellian nightmare, should serve as a warning to Americans.

-- Computerworld / http://www.computerworld.com/article/29 ... icans.html

Wow, that's scary!  Image how extreme PC would go if we adopted something like that.  Honest debate would cease to exist.  We'd all be underground criminals avoiding the Stazi.  I don't want a future like that.

Asian societies really take in-group-conformity and non-tolerance to an extreme.  What will this mean when China is the next global superpower?

Don't you think one's credit score ought to decrease marginally, if one is buying and playing video games as an adult?  That is not the behavior you'd expect from someone who can pay off large debts.

The same goes with political commentary.  Would you entrust a large loan to someone, if you knew he regularly posted his political opinions online?  That is not the behavior of a good businessperson.

You know, you're supposed to enclose sarcasm in sarcasm quotes.
Lowe, you are being sarcastic...aren't you?

I don't approve of the Chinese gov't managing the system, but were it fully the invention of private business I would be 100% behind it.

Perhaps you're hinting that I make too many politically-tinged posts to think badly of people who post their political opinions.  However I don't think badly of them.  I would just think twice about giving them a loan.  Someone who's posting political opinions online is busy making discomfort, and enemies, not money to pay me back.

Why shouldn't creditors assess credit based on personal habits, if they have that data?  There's no expectation of privacy for things you post online, or the friends you have.  As for purchases made through Amazon-like retailers, I can see there is some privacy expected.  Even so, as long as they are not publicizing the transactions, I see little problem.  My purchase decisions are my own, and while I agree I oughtn't be hounded publicly over them, I think ought to be prepared to be held to account.

It seems like this story was misleading.  The government doesn't have the capability, but AliBaba does.  There's a conflation of what the government offers (BBB-style ratings on businesses) with the extensive personal data that AliBaba can track.  So its already a private company that is doing a credit score like claimed, not the government.  Still, in the end, its usually the one and the same due to cronyism or wink and nod scratch my back I'll scratch yours arrangements.  And this is China we're talking about...

As a politically incorrect agitator, I have to agree that someone posting their divergent political opinions online aren't necessarily a good credit risk.  They could be less concerned with social appearances and approval (as far as that goes for Asians, but its probably relative).  OTOH, is agitating for human rights or animal rights necessarily a bad credit risk?  Should we really categorize someone that eats dog meat as a better credit risk over someone that protests against it?  I see the same existential problem here of always favoring making a profit at expense of common sense or what is best for society.  So long as private companies continue to act narrowly like that and disregard all other stakeholders but shareholders, it will always justify the need for government regulation and intervention.

To me it sounded like the gov't had commissioned AliBaba to administer the system, but that it was still owned by the gov't.  Maybe I was mistaken.

I guess I'm suspicious of the real motive behind this move.