The free university system in Latin America has in fact helped to perpetuate inequality, since those students admitted to the highly selective, free universities are those that are usually better prepared through private secondary schools. Nevertheless, changes will be hard to come by as shown by the recent university strike in Mexico. As the East Asian case also demonstrates, the main factor is not public spending on education, but rather the targeting and quality of education. East Asian countries were spending one-quarter of what Latin America was spending on education, targeting primary and secondary education. Moreover, private moneys were used for university training.
Education can be a great force in reducing inequality through greater social mobility.
With regards to labor, proponents of the labor movement in the United States, make the point that U.S. workers do not have security in a globalizing world unless labor standards around the world are raised. Moreover, for these advocates human rights must be respected in the same way that intellectual property was respected in previous trade negotiating rounds. Critics of such arguments believe that these concerns are only a thin veil for a new protectionism, and that in fact, the U.S. labor movement could represent a great obstacle to the economic development of Latin America and the rest of the developing world. Labor unions in Latin America are also a source of concern. It is the belief of leaders in the U.S. labor movement that workers throughout the world should enjoy the freedom of association and that workers in developing countries should have their own labor unions.