It's not just loans and banking. Bad credit severely limits your housing options, even rooms for rent are running credit checks these days. Some employers too, even in roles where you aren't directly handling money or anything close to it.

I understand this, but I meant that the data sources used to build credit scores are mainly banking/debt related. Jaywalking ore saying slurs online won't affect it, unlike in China.

*not yet. And if you are not US citizen and coming in as a tourist, what you write applies heavily and can end up in properly harsh treatment. So its not as rosy as you write (which already ain't rosy)

The difference between a social credit score and a credit score is when you criticize the president, your social credit score goes down, but your credit score stays the same.

The people who have been stalked and apprehended by ICE for online criticism of what ICE is doing might not agree.

As might visitors who are being asked to show five years of social media history to make sure their views are politically acceptable.

Free speech is over. If dissent isn't being actively punished - the current push for deanonymisation is coincidental, no doubt - at the very least it's heavily throttled algorithmically.

Have you tried renting recently?

what do you think china's credit system is like?

That's not actually true. Companies can opt to report your employment to credit agencies, providing another datapoint in background checks.