Not stealing is table-stakes for civilization

When people visit China, they often proclaim how safe it is. Deliveries are frequently left on a table outside hotels or housing on the side of the street or in the lobby and no one worries about their lunch or package being stolen. You can leave your phone, computer and other valuables unattended in on a table in a coffee shop while you go to the restroom and no one will as much as touch them.

This isn't just a characteristic of mainland China and its pervasive video surveillance, but is true of Hong Kong and has been true long before police cameras were a thing. My wife and I have a long running "joke" that it's impossible to lose anything in this city. That's because I'm perennially leaving things behind, but someone always finds it and either holds on to it until I go back to claim it or figures out how to return it to me.

Public spaces where others won't steal your stuff are a basic requirement for a modern civilization. Visitors from the West, once they've gotten over the initial shock of the high trust and secure public spaces in China should instead be asking why the states or cultures in which they live fail to create a society where people don't steal other people's stuff. If a society can't even deliver this basic level of security, what exactly is it doing?