China's Social Credit system

[VladTepes]

A big tool in the arsenal of a totalitarian regime desperate to control it's people by limiting free-thinking and expression.

social credit initiative calls for the establishment of a unified record system so that businesses, individuals and government institutions can be tracked and evaluated for trustworthiness

Supporters claim that the system helps to regulate social behavior, improve the "trustworthiness" of citizens, and promote traditional moral values.

Naturally the government decides what traditional moral values are.

Critics of the system claim that it oversteps the rule of law and infringes the legal rights of residents and organizations, especially the right to reputation, the right to privacy as well as personal dignity, and that the system may be a tool for comprehensive government surveillance and for suppression of dissent from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Reward and punishment

According to the Chinese government's 2015 Plan for Implementation... the system will manage the rewards and punishments for businesses, institutions and individuals on the basis of their economic and personal behavior.

Punishments for poor social credit include increased audits and government inspections for businesses, reduced employment prospects, travel bans, exclusion from private schools, slow internet connection, exclusion from high-prestige work, exclusion from hotels, and public shaming.

Rewards for positive social credit include less frequent inspections and audits for businesses, fast-tracked approvals for government services, discounts on energy bills, being able to rent bikes and hotels without payment of a deposit, better interest rates at banks, and tax breaks.

As of June 2019, according to the National Development and Reform Commission of China, 27 million air tickets as well as 6 million high-speed rail tickets had been denied to people who were deemed "untrustworthy" (on a blacklist).

Certain personal information of the blacklisted people is deliberately made accessible to the society and is displayed online as well as at various public venues such as movie theaters and buses, while some cities have also banned children of "untrustworthy" residents from attending private schools and even universities.

On the other hand, people with high credit ratings may receive rewards such as less waiting time at hospitals and governmental agencies, discounts at hotels, greater likelihood of receiving employment offers and so on.

Abbreviated link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System

[Kiwifruit]

Sounds like the NZ Labour led government wish list.

[GSXKING]

The leader for life, self appointed, Xi JinPing is as nuts as Hitler by all reports.

Like most modern dictatorships dotted around the earth they keep the masses suppressed deliberately. It's not always the leader but the parasites around them that live very lavish lifestyles and want to keep the wealth to themselves, no communism was structured that way of course. Corruption is the root of all evil. 

Rant over 

[Hooli]

Is anyone surprised? & this is the country our governments seem to want to sell our countries too 

[Kiwifruit]

Is anyone surprised? & this is the country our governments seem to want to sell our countries too 

All our eggs are in one very red basket 

[VladTepes]

We're OK with AUKUS mate.

Your commies didn't want to be part of it so... thank Jacinda.

All because of a paranoia of

[GSXKING]

If it was rearranged as USUKAU it's "You Sukkar" 9 Billion for 6 submarines WTF were  they thinking. 

[VladTepes]

$9 billion for 6 submarines? Sadly not - that'd be nearly free.  actually more tahn $9 billion each.


AUKUS and Australia's purchase of nuclear powered submarines

The nuclear submarine program will involve the purchase of 8 submarines (to replace our current fleet of 6 Oberon class subs)
The cost is likely to surpass $100 billion (a shit-ton of cash) which works out to a cool $12,5 billion. Each.
Australia is on track to become only the seventh country in the world to operate nuclear-powered submarines, the existing six being the U.S., U.K., Russia, China, France, and India. 

That $12.5 billion per sub doesn't tell the whole story really as there is more included in the deal.
Australia will also gain
-  access to the Tomahawk and JASSM-ER cruise missiles,
-  LRASM anti-ship cruise missiles,
- the U.S. Army's Precision Strike Missile.
The deal will also continue the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIfire), a U.S.-Australian research partnership to develop an Australian-made hypersonic missile.

(While France produces the SCALP cruise missile, it lacks a long-range anti-ship missile with a payload that can inflict serious damage on a large warship like a Chinese aircraft carrier. It also lags in hypersonic missile technology.)

Increasingly with the existing US alliance and now the new AUKUS alliance, inter-operability is essential. Battlefield cooperation between different countries and services is key to tactical success.

The spend also affirms our strategic position and long term intentions with the AUKUS alliance (obviously necessary) and we are in no way dependent on a third party - in this case the cheese-eating surrender monkeys French.

There are of course other program costs over time for operating and maintenance etc. Speaking of operating costs - the cost of training, paying and retaining sufficient skilled crew is a significant one.
Collins class (Australia) crew: 50
Astute class (UK) crew: nearly 100
Virginia class (US) crew: nearly 140

The French deal

Australia was set to pay $66 billion for a total of 12 French-designed conventional submarines, or over $5 billion per submarine (the original price was $40 billion). With cost blowouts that was revised by the French to a program price of $90 Billion.  So you can see why we wanted out. (at $90 billion that would take the per unit cost to $7.5 Billion, which is a lot for a bad design sub).

Comparison with recent air force acquisition

F-35 jets   Australia committed in 2002 to buy "up to" 100 of them. The cost was estimated at $16 billion.
The Australian Air Force currently owns 41 of them (37 based at Williamtown RAAF base).
Cost? unknown - but LOTS.



further reading
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/subs-set-to-sail-past-100-billion-as-defence-call-on-budget-grows-20210917-p58sj4.html

[Eric GSX1400K3]

The CAPEX is only the tip of the iceberg, it's the OPEX where the real money lies, and with the AU -US alliance on these subs , access to the maintenence programs developed by the US is key.

Have you ever tried to maintain a French car? Abso-friggin-nightmare comes to mind.  With the AU France deal, they conveniently "forgot" the ongoing operational costs....

[Kiwifruit]

NEWSFLASH.......In keeping with it's no nukes policy New Zealand buys secondhand Haines Hunter with 175hp Johnson outboard from Australia to bolster its aging Naval Fleet. Officials say they hope to upgrade the fish finder in coming months. 

[Roo]

Don't forget the helen clark air force that double up as crop dusters on weekends !!!   

[KiwiCol]

I thought it was the other way round Roo, the crop dusters double as bombers in the weekend.     

[VladTepes]

Have you ever tried to maintain a French car? Abso-friggin-nightmare comes to mind.

We (me and now ex-wife)had a  Citroen C5 and it was ultra reliable. Fantastic car.
Until the warranty ran out and the auto box shit itself that'll be $6K please.

But I was divorced by then and she'd kept the car in the divorce.   

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Have you ever tried to maintain a French car? Abso-friggin-nightmare comes to mind.

We (me and now ex-wife)had a  Citroen C5 and it was ultra reliable. Fantastic car.
Until the warranty ran out and the auto box shit itself that'll be $6K please.

But I was divorced by then and she'd kept the car in the divorce.   

KARMA

[KiwiCol]

That was the bike hater wasn't it Vlad?