When we talk about managing personal finances there’s a lot of generalities that get thrown out there. Money has a lot of institutional structure around it, so there’s often an idea that money works the same for everyone. The unfortunate reality is that there are many. many ways that people are disadvantaged or excluded from financial systems.
The most obvious one is that people are disadvantaged based on the amount of wealth they have. The reality is that there is a certain amount of ‘pay to play’ in capital markets, and if you don’t have large amounts of money you are limited in how you access those markets.
Then there are the more subtle forms of exclusion. Capital markets, lending institutions, insurance companies the list goes on are all created by people, operated by people, and are thus prone to human bias. How an entrepreneur accesses start-up capital is going to differ based on the intersections of their identity. Women have a much harder time getting funding, whether through lending or investing. People of Colour are disadvantaged in accessing institutional support, even when they are wealthy or well connected.
These are realities that people have to deal with. Financial institutions are woven into the very structures of power and privilege that permeate our society. As large employers they might have a diverse workforce but they don’t often have diverse decision makers. Leaders tend to be representative of a specific demographic, and that shows in how they deal with their customers.
I’ve even seen some institutions begin to employ targeted relationship managers for specific demographics. Often these roles are about circumventing systems that are too difficult to change for client’s that are deemed high-value. Thus a wealthier queer person for example might not need to deal with parts of a bank that are more likely to be homophobic, because they have an assigned relationship manager. However every other queer person who isn’t afforded this privilege is still subject to systems that the bank knows aren’t inclusive but also don’t see as a priority to fix.
These are real issues that people face everyday. These problems take time to deal with, they increase the burden on people who are just trying to manage their day to day affairs. I know this is an issue, I face it personally. I need to budget at least an hour and a half whenever I need to call my bank. No matter how short or simple a request I have. I can generally expect to go through additional security screening, often being transferred to talk to someone in a specialty security department. Which then takes me out of queue so I need to wait twice to speak with a representative. Who will often be disrespectful as they deal with my request.
This is my experience as someone who is experienced and knowledgeable in financial matters. I’m usually asking for details to a situation I already understand. If I then had to rely on these individuals to provide me with any kind of advice or service I’d just have to hope they cared enough to give me the right answer, because I know they didn’t care enough to be respectful of me as a person.
I believe it’s important to talk about these matters and to bring light to them. As I said in my episode ‘financial concerns for queer and trans people’ there’s a belief that every dollar is treated equally. However until every holder of a dollar is treated equally the options and access that dollar has will be limited.
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