John Garen on KET's the Price of Poverty

Check below for the KET appearance of our very own John Garen, Ph.D., professor of economics at the University of Kentucky and chair of the Bluegrass Institute Board of Scholars! Garen appeared on the second edition of KET's the "Price of Poverty" where panelists discussed the pressing issues keeping Kentucky's most vulnerable stuck in the dependency trap. Is the minimum wage really the answer?

Watch The Price of Poverty in Kentucky 2 on PBS. See more from WKGB.

 You can find Garen around the ten-minute mark, where he explains:

"I think a lot of the problems of persistent poverty come from young people – teenagers - having children, not completing their education, and as a result going on to poverty programs – which, many of them, unfortunately, discourage work. And so, you know, when a person is poor, sometimes that’s the best option for them to take. And I think there’s some changes in policy that can be made to undo that somewhat. And then, you know, when you have kids, don’t have that much education, probably are not married, it’s a tough life. So it’s not a simple thing to begin to undo all that."

And click here for another of our scholars, Eric Shansberg, Ph.D., and his appearance on the first edition of the "Price of Poverty" in Kentucky.