Civic-minded Taiwanese?

NPR's Richard Harris reports on How to Stop SARS? He discusses quarantine experiences in Taiwan, where over 150,000 people were asked to stay home for 10 days. Susan Maloney, a representative from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was positively impressed, crediting Taiwan's good preparation (providing food, mental health counseling, and financial support) because of previous natural disasters. She believes that people seemed to feel that they were helping solve a social problem, and indeed less than one percent violated quarantine. Furthermore, in his report, Harris cites Lawrence Gostin, saying "The people of Taiwan share a community spirit that Gostin doesn't see in the United States." Gostin says Americans used to pride ourselves on civic duty and community relationships, but don't anymore.

I find the report is overly positive about Taiwanese public-spiritedness. Those subject to quarantine were paid a stipend equivalent to the average Taiwan salary; fines ranged from US$1000-$8000, which is a lot of money for most Taiwanese. So much for civic duty. It's almost as good as having a corrupt politico buy your vote.