Governments always need money - it's the essence of their very nature. Democracies need even more money in which to purchase votes and reward political supporters.
So put yourself in the bankers' shoes - what is the easiest, most surefire way of implementing a democracy? Why, to increase the franchise.
Once that was accomplished, there was no end to the number of social programs which could be implemented. I mean, who really cares about the details. Education? Check. The list goes on.
Still, there were certain weaknesses in the overall system, as was demonstrated in 1873, 1893 & 1907. So the key was to lock in a monopoly arrangement, along with income taxes to pay the operating costs.
At a certain abstract level, the design really is a thing of beauty. To this day, barely anyone even understands what is occurring.
Look at you - a reasonable intelligent person correctly identifying education as a prime causative agent, yet failing to understand how universal education was passed in the first place.
The original republicans would have correctly identified this usurpation & blocked its implementation. The newly elected democrats had no such compunction. The bankers had to get rid of the former and instill the latter. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
There were plenty of Useful Idiot ( progressive) Utopians who helped expand the franchise and promoted universal government owned and imposed education. Wilberforce in England immediately comes to mind, and in the U.S., the family of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
I was aware that Progressive Utopians and the industrialists both pushed for universal government education but for different reasons...hm?... I never considered the role banking would have had in the expansion of the voting franchise and government education. You make a very persuasive argument.
It seems to me that what has kept the U.S. from sliding faster into the abyss has been the fact that by the age of 30 enough voters have been mugged by reality that they begin to understand the principles of conservatism. Unfortunately, as the number of people who are employed by the government ( and thus sheltered from reality) grows these graduates of the “school of hard knocks” will become less and less of a percentage of the voting population.