[Tired of Taxes]

If you are a natural US citizen, and your GREs are anywhere close to good, you will waltz into any good Ph.D. program in CS, because there are very few USC applicants who are willing to do the (incredibly intense, shitty, thankless) work required to attain that level of education

Many US citizens stop at an undergrad CS degree for financial reasons, not because they're unwilling to do the hard work for an advanced degree.

Many of them have student debt to pay off for their BS degrees. The last thing they need is more debt. They might want to go to grad school and work toward an advanced degree. But, realistically, are there enough job opportunities, with higher salaries, open to advanced degree holders? I read that most employers aren't looking for people with graduate-level CS degrees because they don't want to pay the higher salary.

Sometimes an employer will supplement the cost of a graduate degree. Otherwise, most American CS majors who stop at the BS degree are being practical, not lazy.

[billakay]

This might be true in a lot of fields, but like most "hard" sciences, a Ph.D. in CS is typically fully funded by your department, and the student will receive a salary/stipend in return for work in the department (research or teaching assistant). All student loans from undergrad can also be deferred until your final graduation.

My package was at the higher end of normal, with $25-27k per year stipend, tuition waiver, and state employees health/dental, but similar arrangements are ubiquitous at good universities.

Sure, lots of students just want to go to work after the BS, and that is completely respectable, but the cost (other than lost wages) is not typically a reason to not pursue a CS Ph.D. in the US.