HR can very quickly sort people by levels of education. Most companies don’t give a fuck what someone learned in their history degree, but know on average they’re more reliable than someone that dropped out of college. Some college still puts people in a better bucket than high school graduates, which is a better bucket than high school dropouts.

Which is why the general population is trying to get that piece of paper. The day HR stops caring is the day this changes.

It sounds like you have your own definition of "intellectuals", which appears to mean pretty much the opposite of what it usually means.