Hebei, a Northern Chinese Province, Unveils an App That Triggers a Notification When You're Near Someone in Debt (standard.co.uk)

China is gearing up to launch a social credit system in 2020, giving all citizens an identity number that will be linked to a permanent record. Like a financial score, everything from paying back loans to behaviour on public transport will be included. One aspect of this social credit system is a new app in the northern province of Hebei. From a report: According to the state-run newspaper China Daily, the Hebei-based app will alert people if there are in 500 metres of someone in debt. It's like being on Oxford Street and being able to work out everyone around you who was in debt. According to the financial charity, the Money Charity, the average UK household debt (including mortgages) was $76,000, in June last year. That's a lot of notifications.

Comments

This is part of a larger game

[Headw1nd]

China has seemingly made a policy of enforcing social shaming and isolation by using surveillance to make the effects transmissible by proximity, i.e. you go to a place undesirables live or hang out, or talk to or even sell things to undesirables, you become an undesirable yourself. Some reports suggest that this policy has been used to great effect in Xinjiang, leading to a situation where the population is so afraid of being blacklisted they will shun anyone they even think might be out of the government's favor. I suspect there is a similar aim with this, and that its true purpose is not to you know you are around debtors, but to remind you that the government knows you are around debtors. Hang out with them too much and your own credit may start to go down.

Could this end the new housing bubble?

[damn_registrars]

I know this is being implemented in China as part of their system, but something like this could potentially be valuable at bringing an end to our current housing bubble. Too many people spend a lot of time drinking the kool-aid that is served up 24/7 on HGTV (and other Realtor advertising networks) and have allowed themselves to fall back into the broken thinking of houses being good investments. I would support damned near anything that would wake people out of this stupor. In the current situation going forward, the only people who will make money off of the purchase and sale of houses are the realtors and the bankers - regular people (or "homeowners") can only lose.

Re: neat

[edris90]

That indicates impatience, and a willingness to take what you have not yet earned. As well as indicates a certain lack of ingenuity because why didn't you find actions directly solve your problem instead of resorting the last ditch efforts like economics. Generally taken as an indicator that a person is not wise enough to self sacrifice. And not practical enough 2 find alternative Solutions to their problemm. In our culture debt symbolizes all that, accurate or no, that is the impression people are getting. At least in elite Society. Now in the Working Poor faction ofSociety. There is no shame in debt, because everyone gets underpaid and overcharge d. There's a perception nothing Real Deals available, so survive and thrive whern you can

Re:Social experiments

[lgw]

China is not a modern military with killer robots.

And lets not forget that the US revolution started with weapons far below the standard for the military at the time. However, before the shooting started, people had been quietly "stealing" (always an inside job) rifles and artillery from armories. Heck, the war started when the British tried to confiscate guns - not hunting rifles, but actual artillery. The only cannon they found were the ones too big to move with small teams of horses.

The arms you currently have in hand are a small factor compared to people willing to fight, and veteran leadership who knows how. US nationalists made British armories their first targets, and a lot of troops were armed with then-modern military weapons that way.

Most revolutions start with military units themselves opposing the government, but armed civilians hitting military bases before they quite know that a war has begun is the other way it plays out.