> The PhD wage situation in the US is simply shameful.

It really isn't. I recently finished my PhD, and now I'm a postdoc. My stipend was $30K, but, crucially, I wasn't living in a place like Santa Cruz. It was very easy to live on such a stipend where I was at. I paid $800/mo for a 2-bedroom apartment all to myself. This was not a CS PhD, it was biomedical, so the stipend was comparable to the normal B.S. salary in that field.

These students' problem is that they chose to do their studies in Santa Cruz. This is not a normal US PhD student situation, it is yet another dysfunctional California situation.

If someone is pursuing a PhD, yet can't do the basic math to determine, before accepting an offer, whether the stipend will allow them to live in the area, I can't summon much sympathy.