So it's apparent that when the empire conquers a world the people living on it are enslaved and treated like garbage. But one thing that has been bugging me for awhile is the fact that the rights of native born imperials (i.e. humans and purebloods on Dromund kaas, Ziost) haven't been expounded upon. The empire is, of course, a dictatorship where information censoring and slavery are commonplace, and it is clear the sith don't see the mundane population of the empire as much more than cannon fodder, but how comfortable is your imperial average Joe? Are the cities across Dromund kaas gripped with poverty and neglect? Are the "free" people still terribly overworked? Surely there wouldn't be so many patriotic imperial everymans if life was too terrible, and most of the non conquered imperial worlds aren't exactly a vision of North Korea. Are there any lore buffs out there with more knowledge than me on this topic?

In a government that spawns planets I think the Imperial worlds of Dromund Kaas and Ziost are fashioned more as administrative worlds rather than civilian. Of course there are talk of civilians on Dromund Kaas, but I see them as being somehow attached to the government (families, civic support etc). Without knowing how many cities DK has outside of Kaas City, it's hard to get a grasp on the demographic.

I do see the Empire "relocating" people to other worlds for either work (forced or professional) or "seeding" a newly taken world with Imperial doctrine and ideology by way of forced immigration.

I don't think poverty as we see it is tolerated on firmly held Imperial worlds. The impoverished are probably relocated to labor operations. In a society where slavery is tolerated and capital punishment is encouraged... social problems probably have a way of "disappearing" and most citizens are smart enough not to openly notice.

Quality of life is probably great if you're attached to either the government, military or sith. Everything else is considered a resource to be reaped for the betterment of those three. Science, unless it's attached to one of the above is probably viewed no better than the merchant class.

Edited May 7, 2015 by IchibanSaru

This is just my opinion, as I'm not really much of a lore buff, but I can't imagine the Empire being sooooo full of gung ho super patriotic employees if they were overly brutal to the general population. The Sith do walk that line, though, and you encounter Imperials here and there who mention it. On Balmorra, on one of the Bounty Hunter missions, you work for an Imperial that mentions something about how things work around here. You can reply to the effect of "that's a stupid way to run a planet", to which he replies "you work for the Empire you have, not the Empire you WISH you had.

 

Still, it seems most of the Imperials (in the military or intelligence at least) are almost religiously devoted to the Empire and, arguably and to a lesser extent, their Sith overlords. The Sith would have to be giving lots of kickbacks to the military and their families to offset how harshly they are often treated in order to avoid a resource-draining revolt. The slave revolt on Drommund Kaas seems to be a huge inconvenience, now imagine a revolt with the coordination, discipline, and equipment of the Imperial military. It would be a matter of pragmatism to appease the general populace, or at least the military and their families.

 

As somebody else already mentioned, I'd imagine things like poverty aren't really tolerated on core Imperial worlds like DK, and perhaps not anywhere else. Whether the poor are mistreated and enslaved or indentured or whether they are simply shuttled around from workplace to workplace to keep them employed and contributing to society I can't say, but I imagine it would be less resource intensive to just say "nope, no welfare programs in place, but here's a shuttle ticket to a newly conquered colony world where opportunity abounds. We're literally raining credits down all over the place, there's no way you can't succeed there."

 

The Imperials have to see the Empire and particularly the Sith as a superior life to living under the Republic. They're wholly and completely indoctrinated, propaganda has probably been refined into an art form, the people seem almost religiously patriotic. But at the end of the day if the average citizen were living in constant misery and fear the continued existence of the Empire isn't realistic.

 

But then, the fact that the Galactic Republic has continued to actually function for so long also strains credulity so who really knows.

You have to consider also real empires in our world: the common people are literally powerless. Look at America right now. If you're not so rich that you impoverish others, you might as well not exist for all the power you can exert from a political perspective. Ancient empires (Sumeria, Persia, Rome, China, etc etc) made their people loyal by indoctrinating them into the military, making them fanatically loyal to whoever is in charge.

 

Beyond that, the Empire is very much 1930's Germany or 1950's America - there's an enemy out there (Jews and/or Soviets respectively) who will take away everything you have and they're bad. The Sith, for all their other evils, are tolerated or even admired for their power, because for literally millennia the Imperial populace has been told the Republic is worse. And realistically, can you blame them? The Republic did try to exterminate the Empire as a whole, even though only a small part of its population is actually Sith (as force-users, not a species). Now, it's open to debate why the Imperial populace didn't realize that and overthrow the Sith, but it's not really the point of this thread, either.

 

And let's be realistic, too. The common people in the Empire (and Republic, for that matter) are seemingly so dirt poor that they're really not concerned with politics and wars and whatever else. They're just trying to survive.

 

But then, the fact that the Galactic Republic has continued to actually function for so long also strains credulity so who really knows.

 

Function is a pretty strong word for the Republic. >.>

You have to consider also real empires in our world: the common people are literally powerless. Look at America right now. If you're not so rich that you impoverish others, you might as well not exist for all the power you can exert from a political perspective. Ancient empires (Sumeria, Persia, Rome, China, etc etc) made their people loyal by indoctrinating them into the military, making them fanatically loyal to whoever is in charge.

>.>

best add Uk to that list now

Worth giving some thought to the very idea of "quality of life" as a useful metric for measuring a society. Historically, this metric only emerged relatively late in the 20th century as a real measure of societal success. See, for example, Melvyn Leffler's For the Soul of Mankind, which discusses the evolution of US-Soviet rivalry in the second half of the 20th century. For the first half of the 20th century, metrics like military power, steel output, or scientific achievement were generally considered to be the mark of a successful society. It was only with the emergence of contemporary consumer culture from the 1950s onwards that "standard of living" in terms of material welfare became a metric for societal success, first in the United States and increasingly throughout the rest of the world.

 

So, while we might consider the quality of life in the Empire from a real-world perspective, it might also be worth considering whether "quality of life" is really a metric that is used in-universe. Certainly at the time of the Prequel Trilogy people in the Republic don't really seem to care very much about the "quality of life" of many Republic citizens living throughout the galaxy. Perhaps quality of life is not a particularly meaningful concept for the denizens of the GFFA.