A reasonable number of my friends did particle physics PhDs in the States. None of them had their housing subsidised and one got very sick and had to sell her car to pay for her medical treatment so I don't think her health plan was great. I'm fairly certain dental wasn't included. And the ones I know worked 10-12 hours per day usually six days per week.
Some grad students do have better conditions from endowments that fund scholarships, but not many. And the supplementary work that they do as teaching assistants allow the taxpayer-funded undergrad programmes to run at a much lower cost than if they had to pay people actual wages.
There is an argument for saying that there's enough money in the further education sector - but the idea of grad students with cheap housing and great medical plans living off the taxpayers are not supported by any of the observations that I have made.
> but the idea of grad students with cheap housing and great medical plans living off the taxpayers are not supported by any of the observations that I have made.
My observation was based on my own experience as a grad student at a state school. I had free medical/dental insurance and grad-student specific housing incredibly close to my workplace. Possibly this is not wide enough to be true on the general basis; which is why I restricted my comment scope to say "state school". I have heard similar experiences from people at other state schools as well. So I'm not sure why there is such a big disconnect in our experiences. Can other people weigh in?
Some grad students do have better conditions from endowments that fund scholarships, but not many. And the supplementary work that they do as teaching assistants allow the taxpayer-funded undergrad programmes to run at a much lower cost than if they had to pay people actual wages.
There is an argument for saying that there's enough money in the further education sector - but the idea of grad students with cheap housing and great medical plans living off the taxpayers are not supported by any of the observations that I have made.