Mark D. White

Writer, editor, teacher

recent posts

about

I’m a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the College of Staten Island/CUNY, where I teach courses in philosophy, economics, and law, and the author/editor/co-editor of several books.

Category: Marriage

  • Justice is done—and done the right way—in SCOTUS’ decision on marriage equality

    Mark D. White Today the Supreme Court of the United States—now, thanks to Justice Scalia's dissent in yesterday's King v Burwell dissent, "officially" known as SCOTUS—declared marriage to be a right for all, covering both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. In his majority opinion, Justice Kennedy affirms same-sex marriage to be a matter of rights and…

  • My personal debt to Gary Becker (RIP)

    Mark D. White I was very sad to hear of Professor Gary Becker's passing. Although I never met him, and heard him speak only once, he had a tremendous impact on my life and career. As an undergraduate economics major in college, I was focusing on monetary economics and anticipating a career with the Federal…

  • David Brooks on same-sex marriage, freedom, and individualism in The New York Times

    Mark D. White In his New York Times column today, David Brooks hails the movement for same-sex marriage as an admirable step away from personal freedom and autonomy: …last week saw a setback for the forces of maximum freedom. A representative of millions of gays and lesbians went to the Supreme Court and asked the…

  • Why hasn’t social economics focused more on the family?

    Mark D. White A question occurred to me this morning as I did some basic research on alimony after reading Alexandria Harwin's New York Times op-ed "Ending the Alimony Guessing Game": why don't social economists focus more on the family? Ms. Harwin's article interested me more at first due to her discussion of judicial discretion…

  • Marriage equality in New York: It should have been done better.

    Mark D. White Last nigt New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill allowing same-sex marriage after a lengthy process of legislative tomfoolery. Those who have read my previous posts and work on the issue will not be surprised to hear that I am very happy about the result and less than pleased with the…

  • Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Defended on Moral Terms, Not Economic Ones

    Mark D. White Sociologist Jaye Cee Whitehead (Pacific University) has a wonderful piece in The New York Times today titled "The Wrong Reasons for Same-Sex Marriage," arguing that the recent arguments espousing the economic benefits of same-sex marriage for cash-strapped states and municipalities miss the point: Those making these economic arguments probably have the best…

  • Proposition 8 (and the tyranny of the majority) overturned in California

    Mark D. White Yesterday, Judge Vaughn R. Walker overturned Proposition 8, the voter-enacted amendment to the California Constitution that declares marriage to be exclusively between a man and a woman. This case will undoubtedly move up through the court system, but for now this is undeniably a huge step. I especially appreciated this passage in Judge…

  • Adultery and Alzheimer’s

    Mark D. White No economics here (not obviously, anyway)–just a topic I'm interested in, the ethical aspects of marital relations, infidelity, and divorce. From The Wall Street Journal last week comes an article by Alicia Mundy titled "Of Love and Alzheimer's" regarding the ethics of adultery on the part of spouses of Alzheimer's sufferers. It…