If it's a PhD in something like "Whiteness studies" or in multitude of similarly useful subjects, then gainful employment as a barista is a happy ending really.

I don't know how does it look in Canada or Australia, but where I live we have plenty of graduates and post-graduates, who won't work in construction, in warehouses, or generally doing anything that has material effects (welding, carpentry or woodworking, machining, and so on), because they weren't studying for several years only to do physical work.

Barista-ing may be one of the better outcomes. There are so many in food service, un/under paid research positions, perpetual adjunct professing, etc. Maybe Thiel is right...