The Chinese are formalizing it and adding the system to places that haven't been too political in the past, but the west has its own unwritten social credit system and if you don't figure it out and kowtow to it then you're secretly penalized.

e.g. Cross an insecure manager or exec in your company by saying something that's true and better for the company, you'll get dingined without knowing it. Focus solely on learning at school and not enough on figuring out the game too, there again you're going against the system.