I’m attempting to read Capitalism and Disability: Essays by Marta Russell (you can listen, here) for personal reasons. I say attempting because I easily get distracted, and am already reading The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. In Capitalism and Disability, a documentary produced by Marta is mentioned, Disabled & The Cost of Saying I Do, so I decided to watch it. It’s also on YouTube here, and in higher video quality here.

The documentary covers the unfair disincentives that those who are disabled, on Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI), and get married face. This marriage penalty doesn’t apply if you are on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) unless you’re a Disabled Adult Child (DAC) or a widow or widower of a SSDI recipient. If SSI recipients marry someone with even a small income or level of assets, they could lose their benefits and Medicaid. This is because the Social Security Administration (SSA) considers a portion of the spouse’s income and assets as belonging to the SSI recipient. SSI recipients are often deemed to have income or assets that are too high for SSI or Medicaid because of this.

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund gets funding from the Department of Education, but they cover SSI and the marriage penalty decently here and here. More resources on capitalism and disability can be found, here.