The banks make huge profits on our backs as 375% more mortgages than in 2018 go into default.
In June 2023, I let loose in an article titled “Till Debt Do Us Part,” a cry echoing the plight of countless bank customers on the precipice of financial ruin. There I was as thousands faced the grim reality of mortgage default.
Enter the self-righteous overlord of the Royal Bank, perched high on his gilded throne, with a smugness that could only be matched by his $1,000 Gucci kicks.
“This is merely an issue of consumer lifestyle,” he proclaimed as if our lives could be rewritten with a pitiful reassessment of our latte purchases.
Meanwhile, in the real world, over 5% of the population battled to scrape through each month with food bank visits, now a morbid tally survival chart. What, pray tell, does he suggest? A cap on our feeding frenzy to three trips to the food bank a month?
Yeah, that's the magic fix, I guess, for the Mr. CEO. Celebrate chiseled priorities while we decide between food for our kids or a roof over our heads.
Fast forward through the months, and wouldn’t you know it? A fresh CMHC report suggests the fate of over a million homeowners, all poised to face the grim specter of steeply rising interest rates as their mortgages approach renewal.
The foreboding whispers of increased risk of default fill the air like ominous clouds—only a fraction of which seemed to bother the omnipotent Dave McKay, RBC CEO, who stands indifferent, arms crossed, proclaiming that “only a tiny portion” of RBC's gargantuan $260-billion residential portfolio could sail into default.”
Ah, “only a portion”—the callous balm to soothe the souls of those crushed under what is a 375% rise in defaults since 2018. And what of that grim statistic, you ask?
It is but an echo, drowned out by the sonorous chants of profit margins swelling beyond belief in the big Canadian banks. It’s as if we’re mere splotches of paint on a canvas of corporate greed, hopelessly and helplessly ensnared between the jagged rocks of inflation and the relentless tide of exorbitant debt.
Each tightening grip of financial despair unfolds the ghastly tale of our lives turning into mere commodities. We, the common folk, are left gasping under the weight of government handouts lining the pockets of those who would gouge us until death—or default—do us part.
In this gritty reality, one can’t help but wonder: where is the accountability? The weight of those 375% hanging heavy above the many who fall into shadows of desperation. It’s a financial chokehold held tight by those who cruise in their limousines, indifferent to the wreckage in their wake.
It’s high time we shift the narrative from flawed lifestyle choices to the harsh truths of a system rigged against us, where the privileged bask in the sun while the rest of us scramble desperately to keep us from drowning in debt.
The banks have spoken, but we have a voice, too, and it’s time to reclaim our stories and demand a reckoning for the suffering dictated by government largess and their whims.
Please remember what they have all done to us with government support when it is time to mark your ballot.
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