Fred Gaboury

Free-market economic policies are harmful to Third World nations, argues Fred Gaboury in the following viewpoint. He asserts that these policies, which emphasize deregulation and privatization, have led to a greater disparity between the incomes of industrialized and developing countries and a decline in economic growth and trade in the forty-eight least-developed nations. Gaboury maintains that these policies need to be reviewed. Gaboury is the World Federation of Trade Unions’ representative to the United Nations. This viewpoint was originally a statement presented to the UN Economic and Social Council on July 28, 1998.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to statistics cited by Gaboury, how many people live on less than two dollars per day?
2. In the author’s view, what is the foundation of human development?
3. What do transnational corporations control...