Standards of living in the Empire

Something I've been chewing on for a while...

Life under the Empire has often been described as oppressive to one degree or another, if memory serves, but the possibility of being shot by Stormtroopers for sheltering suspected Rebels aside, exactly what sort of conditions could be considered the standard for the average Joe Citizen?

A life on a harsh frontier world like Tatooine, for example, would seem to preclude the acquisition of many amenities, but the apparently lower-class Lars family seems to have lived a life not dissimilar in terms of material comforts to that of... oh, say a walnut ranching family in 1950s California, with numerous labour-saving devices/droids, a family motor transport, plus the equivelent of a jalopy or hot rod for Luke (depending on the state of repair) and even a recreational light aircraft, not to mention the fact that the collecting and building of model vehicles is apparently not unknown amongst moisture farming families.

 

Well actually according to LOTF life as a normal citizen was pretty much the same as in the Republic. It didn't have much effect on them.

 

I know, I'm thinking more in terms of standards of living. If those of a Tatooine moisture farmer compare more or less favourably to middle-class America in the 1950s, what are things like on Balmorra, Alderaan or Kuat, for example?

 

The economics of moisture farming still frankly baffle me.

 

Likewise.

 

Around the time Luke left Tatooine, the Empire were buying a lot of farms and the farmers were little more than tenants.

 

For those who saw what the Empire actually did, yeah they're going to saw that life under them was terrible.

Though for Average Joe, you probably wouldn't tell. Only thing you would notice is a name change.

 

I've always been under the impression that the standard of living in the Empire for regular citizens in Mid-Rim worlds and Core worlds was a American white collar middle class existence. I've always thought that regardless of the industry or companies that existed within the Empire those companies were bloated with bureaucracy, mid-level managers and such, so those positions have to be filled by someone. Regular citizens of the Empire.

bran

 

Street of Shadows touchs on this.It mentions that people had different clearance passes for coming and going from Coruscant, and how "political threats" were being eliminated, be they a threat or not

So I'd say for the citizens of key Imperial Worlds, like Coruscant, the standard of living did probably change. But for likely 95% of worlds there would be almost zero difference. I do bet the Wookies would give a pretty strong arguement that the standards did change though

 

I always figured moisture farming was subsistence farming with whatever elsewise.

I.e. rather huge poverty by Galactic standard.

If we still assume the Radio Drama is canon then it seems that while its impossible for the Galactic Empire to effect every citizen in the galaxy, they were having a large effect on at least some of the citizenry. I recall references to crushing taxes on citizens (certainly the Ghorman Massacre is one sign that they were rather high), also the fact that the Empire was very much about allowing super-corporations the chance to exploit citizens for all that they're worth, and there's also some hints that the Empire's response was to nationalize businesses whenever they were short of funds.

In other words, the Empire was a oligarchy and a plunder based economy that was slowly squeezing the galaxy dry of its prosperity.

 

[image=http://static1.videosift.com/thumbs/l/if/Life_of_Brian_What_have_the_Romans_done_for_us.jpg]

Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what has the Empire ever done for us?

There was also a thing with company towns that made deals with the local governors.

 

Please, Palpatine would never support social services!

That would just lead to people being happy and that won't make them Darksiders!

 

Tatooine has massive drug profits pouring in, which I guess would boost the local economy some...

 

To be fair, plenty of 3rd world nations have massive drug industries.

Tatooine's wealth distribution probably looks like this....

Jabba the Hutt 99%
Jabba's Goons .9%
Everybody else .1%

 

Which it obviously isn't.

 

It depended on the size of the property, look at what happened to Bigg's dad after he got the Lars homestead.

 

"But I was going into the Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!"
Guilty Luke. XD

 

Don't forget Lady Valarian

 

I think it's also worth taking into account species. The standard of living for humans might well - as Ben claims in LOTF - have been largely unchanged (bizarre economics of moisture farming aside), but that's unlikely to hold true for the non-human species. We know that some of them were outright enslaved such as the wookies and there was widespread discrimination which probably lead to a major drop in standard of living.

I have nothing really to add to the moisture farming debate aside from the idea that perhaps Owen Lars isn't a typical moisture farmer? His father was rich enough to buy and free a slave. And the profit margins of farmers do vary wildly based on crops, land, the economy itself... I rectify it in my head by assuming that in Cliegg's time the Lars farm was a large and prosperous spread making Cliegg a comparatively rich man. By Owen's time things are harder due to environmental and economic issues. He can no longer afford many farmhands or even a new droid (though his making a big deal of this is clearly also a ploy to keep Luke from leaving which may well have been due to his parentage not his farm's dire need). But he'd still have quite a large house and spread of land left from better times. Though, that's nothing more than a personal retcon.

 

The fact is, a single standard of living and economic prosperity for the entire Galactic Empire is probably impossible to come by, as the various galactic regions were vastly different in economic makeup and societal structure.

Economic standards in the majority of the galaxy, especially the Core Worlds and the Colonies, were most likely higher then in the last years of the old Republic; what with the stabilization and expansion of the trade routes, the massive military and industrial buildup during the Clone Wars, and the nationalization of former Separatist corporations. Conditions in Outer Rim periphery and former Confederate worlds were probably worse then during the old Republic, mainly due to the backlash of anti-alien sentiment during the Clone Wars, the crushing new tax burdens, and looting of Rim worlds to feed the economy of the Core.

 

We've been subject to hearsay that there was widespread discrimination, not that I would object to it if it were true...

From an impoverished junk dealer who couldn't afford to keep her. Of course, the fairly lavish standard of living (relatively speaking) apparently enjoyed by Watto's slaves is a whole other can of worms...

I've gotten the reverse impression, actually. In Cliegg's time, the only droid we see on the farm is 3PO, and the only vehicle is Owen's swoop bike, though Cliegg's injuries seem to imply that he was riding one, possibly another one at the time he received them, which contrasts greatly with the three motor vehicles (two of them possibly superfluous) and numerous droids that Owen later owns, not to mention his, well, mention of hiring more hands, implying that there are at least a few working on the farm to begin with.

Another odd detail is the fact that Cliegg was either independantly wealthy enough, or the economy was such that he could afford as a young man to move off-world to Ator (The Fighting Eagle!), a planet all the way in the Core, and then later move back to Tatooine when his wife died, suggesting that travel between planets is possibly quite affordable and commonplace.

 

From an impoverished junk dealer who couldn't afford to keep her. Of course, the fairly lavish standard of living (relatively speaking) apparently enjoyed by Watto's slaves is a whole other can of worms...

Maintaining an apartment for slaves is pretty much actually expected of slave owners. It's hardly lavish. You don't keep your slaves in a big pile. Likewise, Watto at the time of TPM, was a fairly successful owner of a business. He also seems to have derived some genuine money from participation in the Pod Races (even if it was just betting against Anakin).

 

It's lavish in comparison with what you'd expect slaves to have in the way of accomodations. The interior décor is on par with the Lars farm, for heaven's sake.

If you have a "big pile" and are a slave owner, it's pretty much going to be expected that you have house slaves.

And also something of a credit-pincher.

 

It's lavish in comparison with what you'd expect slaves to have in the way of accomodations. The interior décor is on par with the Lars farm, for heaven's sake. tongue

Sandstone?

And slaves tended to have living accommodations on par with those that owned them or just below.

And also something of a credit-pincher.

True, I'd have loved to have learned more about slave's role as a status symbol.

 

The disparity between the have and have nots is so great, it's hard to consider fully. Some have the ability to buy entire planets on a whim, while poor people in near slave like conditions can barely afford passage to mining gigs. I imagine buying a ship is like buying a Lear Jet. It's a luxury and the fueling of it, that a rare few can afford. I suppose the middle class always feels political shifts the most since they always seem tot be the ones that foot the bills.