My take on it is that SV is 'liberaltarian', in that they prefer small, efficient, decentralized organizational structures, but that they also recognize the nee

My take on it is that SV is 'liberaltarian', in that they prefer small, efficient, decentralized organizational structures, but that they also recognize the need for social welfare as a stabilizing force. That's how I see it as well. The fact is, that there is a strong demand for social insurance/welfare services (e.g. health insurance, unemployment stipends, retirement pensions, etc), and the supply of those services can either come mostly from the government (as it tends to in Western Europe) or mostly from employers (as it tends to in the US). "Liberaltarians," I think, believe that we're better off letting the government provide the social insurance services to everyone, so that citizens' access to them is no longer dependent on employment, which will increase liquidity in the labor market and take some of the risk out of entrepreneurship. Then employers also won't have to be burdened with providing and administrating these expensive "benefits." Win-win. Meanwhile, people that live in sparsely-populated rural areas believe that they have less demand for social services, and that their tax dollars are paying for the social services that are only consumed by low-income city-dwellers. I've read studies that show this is false, and most rural counties consume more tax dollars than they contribute, mostly due to farm subsidies. Regardless, that seems to be the main economic concern of rural Republican voters.