Here's what I've come up with: A city of shameless people is likely to find itself ruined by shameless acts.

You can expand that to "a society", in general. It occurred to me that in Canada, people are fairly self-conscious about their actions. They don't want to be seen or caught doing something embarrassing or unethical. In other words, they care about what other people might say and think - thus, the standard in which the society operates is kept higher than otherwise.

In Taiwan, many people (in particular those of an older generation) have very little shame. Making strange sounds in public, doing things that are considered crude by North American standards, and not giving much considering to those around them. This results in a much less refined culture, which I guess is where they started from. It's obvious how people here don't care too much about others past themselves, families, and friends. People in the street will bump into you, push you from behind if you're in a line-up, hulk up phlegm, pick their noses, cut you off in traffic, etc. I mean, there are nice people too, but the overall impression is often set by the worst of them.