[yurie_breschnef]

I sometimes feel like currency is a primitive preliminary to this social points system.

People who show unusual or controversial behaviour (be it political or social) will soon loose sources of income and thereby social status.

People who stick to the accepted norms and ethics and do not act up will on average have the chance to move up the ladder and earn more money and prestige.

The analogy is not perfect, of course, but money has similar effects on our society.

[partisan]

A religious analogy is that in Christianity, it is not enough to be good. You also have to accept Christ as your savior. Without both of those things, you risk your eternal soul.

Here, the state is asking you to work within the laws they put in place and be a good productive worker by generating value, but you should also show absolute faith in the government and to prove it by achieving a high social score.

[d4nt]

It’s similar, but in capitalist systems all get a weighted vote on how many points you get. (Either by buying your time/products or if I’m your boss I can promote/fire you). By the look of it, the Chinese system gives complete control to the government. So it’s analogous to a fully planned economy.

[yurie_breschnef]

I agree with your point.

I am sometimes baffled when people seem to think that the amount of money that is payed for a certain job is proportional to how beneficial that job or service is to the society. I mean, there are Bankers who make good money screwing everybody over. Yet somehow people seem to look up to them.

I'd like to think that there might be improvements in how we value/pay services. But letting the government decide that is also quite foolish.

[mtgx]

Except in this system you will get penalized (lose income) for not supporting the government in power. That's not exactly how it works in a standard capitalist and democratic system.