In a commentary, SMU Adjunct Professor and Institute of Southeast Asia Studies Visiting Senior Research Fellow Joergen Oerstroem Moeller noted that one of the biggest and most important societal experiments is underway in Europe: Merging social welfare and a competitive society into a political and economic model. This is long overdue, given the crippling costs of welfare and how it has eroded competitiveness. Adjunct Prof Moeller added that the apprehension is palpable among the people, with the large majority feeling that the over-arching objective of the social welfare model must be kept intact but loopholes should be closed so the system does not buckle under the weight of providing for freeloaders.