One should be careful when making this argument to distinguish between niche "higher education" like the history PhDs under discussion here (things which people

One should be careful when making this argument to distinguish between niche "higher education" like the history PhDs under discussion here (things which people do because they have an overwhelming passion for the "pure" subject and/or for teaching it) and the broader "higher education" which most people pursue (degrees which lower barriers to careers). The post here suggests on the order of 1200 people a year getting history PhDs in the U.S. - multiply that by a few dozen other esoteric fields and that's still not much compared to the millions of people who want to get "higher education" of some kind each year in the U.S.