What is Your Social Credit Score?

Move over Experian and Equifax! We all know about our credit scoring system with credit reporting agencies such as Experian and Equifax. These credit agencies report our standardized credit rating scores to the world. I was intrigued when I heard about this new social credit score system.

China’s New Big Idea

China is now ranking citizens with a social credit system. This is currently done by local authorities but by 2020 China will rank all of their citizens on their new social credit score. People will mandatorily be rewarded or punished corresponding to their social behavior. Citizens will receive social credit scores from a Chinese government agency. According to a Chinese government document, the goal of this social credit system is to keep trust and when someone breaks this trust they find it disgraceful.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Your social credit score is fluid just as your financial credit score. There are published, standardized parameters for determining your financial credit score unlike this social credit score. No standardized structure has been disclosed by China. In smaller communities that already use social credit scores your score is influenced by smoking in a non-area, bad driving or posting fake news online.

The Problems with Social Credit Score

There are many things wrong with this system. Below is a list of many problems I found with it.

1. Restricting travel. The government can ban you from flying or traveling by train if you loiter in front of boarding gates or smoke in the wrong place.
2. No school admittance. Some kids are kept from colleges because their parents have low social credit scores.
3. Internet speeds throttled. If you spend too much time on social media, play too many video games or spread any fake news your Internet speed can get cut.
4. Taking your dog away. This one really hurts me. If you walk your dog without a leash or if your dog causes any public disturbance it can be confiscated. Ouch!
5. Public shaming. They can literally label you a bad citizen and put you on a bad citizen list. Employers are asked to check the bad citizen list before hiring anyone.

A Mindful Credit Scoring System

Okay at first I thought this social credit scoring was a great idea. We deal with so many hateful, ungrateful, rude, selfish people these days, especially with our current political and social climate, I thought a Mindful Credit Score would be an interesting idea years ago. I was perusing this social credit score as a possible model for a Mindful Living scoring methodology in the beginning until I saw how dysfunctional and out of hand this social credit system got. The way I drive my car my social credit score would be in the trashed from the get-go.

The Mindful Credit Scoring I was envisioning revolved more around respect, living the Golden Rule, and civic participation. The Mindful score would not be run by a government agency but maybe by your conscience or spiritual tenants. After studying the Chinese social credit score system I think I’m trashing the Mindful Credit Scoring idea. I am just going to trust in the goodness of people, karma, and hope.