Look at what the U.S. military has been doing - they're effectively well paid mercenaries. For the last 60 years, hardly anyone in the military has had a vested interest in any of the conflicts, and does it just for the money.
While I served > 10 years ago, you could classify everyone into a couple types: mercenaries (time servers, GI Bill folks, can't get any other job, in for the benefits, etc), and zealots (true believers in either the Red, White & Blue or in some flavor of dominionism, with plenty of overlap).
There are always articles popping up about people being so poor that the only way to escape was to join the military, or recruiters bribing people with college degrees.
Members of the all-volunteer military are significantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 percent came from the wealthiest quintile. These trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40 percent of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods-a number that has increased substantially over the past four years.
-- Who Serves in the U.S. Military? The Demographics of Enlisted Troops and Officers
