[inglor_cz]

My European experience says that even relatively small countries the size of Mississippi themselves have a fair share of folks kvetching that the richer parts subsidize the poorer parts. Few places are small or homogeneous enough not to experience that. A continent-wide country like the US can hardly escape the same.

It is even worse if there is an ethnic difference in the mix (e.g. the Flemish vs. the Walloons in Belgium).

Also, I wonder whether New York / California liberals would really welcome soldiers among them and whether the military could recruit enough people there. Amazon got kicked out from New York for being too capitalist.

It definitely seems to me that the coastal elite wants a strong military to protect their trade empire, but preferrably located far away and with someone else's kids doing the dangerous parts of the job.

[corrral]

A crucial (though obviously not the only!) purpose of the US military is to provide a jobs program with nearly European/white-collar-US level social benefits (healthcare, college, retirement, even housing) to people with few options. It stands to reason this means volunteers disproportionately come from states with weak economies.