They actually enjoy keeping people at that level of ignorance and poverty

I think, taking this to a more general level, that's a requisite of free-market capitalism (and for that matter of the totalitarian forms of communism): it doesn't work unless the vast majority of those involved are too dumb and/or ignorant to realize they're being shafted. This is of course incompatible with democracy, which functions best with well educated and well informed populations.