The US military is largely a blue-collar jobs program that lets you opt in to service in exchange for something resembling standard European social benefits (retirement, healthcare, housing, education). Which sucks for a bunch of reasons, including that some are excluded from eligibility, but it's what we've got. That's obviously not the whole reason we have a military, or even close to it, but it's become a big part of its role in society.

As far as I can tell, the closest we have to a white-collar jobs program is the health insurance industry and insurance-related jobs elsewhere. Keeping millions employed while being a drag on the rest of the economy.