Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Backgrounder - Canada's Big Banks

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

According to this post Canada's 'Big 6' banks earned $58 billion in 2023 and $61 billion in 2022. It didn't cite sources so I dug around and was able to confirm the $61 billion figure with this report from KPMG. Why is this relevant? Last year, the average university tuition in Canada was $6,834, according to Statistics Canada. There were 1,174,000 university students in Canada. That's a lot, but the bank profits would have paid full tuition for 8,487,000 students. We could give every student in Canada free tuition while barely denting bank profits. Is this reasonable? Well, Canadian taxpayers did bail out the banks to the tune of $114 billion in the 2008 recession. Perhaps the banks could consider giving back to the system that sustains them. If we are to achieve the benefits of technology, including educational technology, we have to address the distribution of wealth in society. Otherwise, after all this work, we will have generated nothing more than a crisis.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 27, 2024 11:49 p.m.

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