I'm surprised I haven't heard this point of view before. In the past I've often thought that the amount of value I get from enjoying the humanities is _complete

I'm surprised I haven't heard this point of view before. In the past I've often thought that the amount of value I get from enjoying the humanities is _completely_ disproportionate to the amount I pay for them. The majority of my leisure time is spent consuming art. But if I told someone that I spend $1000/yr purchasing music, they would likely be a little surprised. At the very least I would be an outlier. But I can relate to the other point of view that there is a _lot_ of other work being done today that enables the humanities to be enjoyed in the first place, so maybe valuing the direct product of the humanities at only $500-$1000/yr isn't _that_ far away from their true value. I'm still not entirely convinced, but it's true that if the sharing of art vanished, I would find other ways to fill the gap without a huge amount of trouble (thought likely a large chunk of that would be me creating art for myself)