What is the standard of living in Star Wars?

[Adam Reynolds]

How well off is the average person in Star Wars relative to someone alive in the present?

I was thinking about this in the context that despite being slaves, Anakin and his mother actually live surprisingly well, with enough leftovers to feed Qui-Gon and company and enough spare time for Anakin to build a protocol droid and podracer. Probably rather better than the average standard of living on present day Earth. Luke's family similarly has a sprawling estate(though admittedly on a desert planet where space is cheap) as well as two landspeeders and an airspeeder. There is no indication that they are especially well off by Tatooine standards.

Rey seems to have a much lower standard of living, but that is partially because she chooses to stay on Jakku, which is run like a company town(paying employees in food portions). And even then, she had enough spare time to learn how to fly and apparently worked on the Millennium Falcon(which also makes me wonder if she screwed over Ukkar Plutt in the past*, which led to him banishing her to be a scavenger). Though she was also so poorly educated that she thought Luke Skywalker was a myth.

*As a side note, I wonder if he was actually tied to The Resistance the entire time. If he was actually out to get BB-8 back to them rather than selling it to the First Order.

[Broomstick]

Seems to me that, in a milieu where flying/hovering machines are as common as dirt like Star Wars, learning to fly would be about as remarkable as learning how to drive in our civilization.

[Adam Reynolds]

But Rey also learned to fly at the level of a combat pilot. While she was also Force sensitive, she certainly had a fair degree of learned ability in that respect. Force powers don't tell one how to turn shields on.

In any case, someone living in the Star Wars version of Sub-Saharan Africa still had the spare time to learn how to drive when it wasn't related to her job in any sense.

[Ralin]

Frankly I think that's more a function of Star Wars spacecraft and snubfighters being a lot easier to learn to fly than real life military aircraft. Being able to fly on par with a TIE pilot = a couple notches above the Duke boys being able to out-drive the police.

Similarly, 'turn on the shields' is probably either a basic thing you learn when learning about how to pilot a ship, something that's clearly labeled on the control panel for people who know how to read it or both. Plus yeah, magic Force powers add another layer of wiggle room to that.

[FaxModem1]

Anakin and Shmi might be a special case, as Watto might have been a relatively nice slave owner, as we've seen Wookie Slaves for the Empire, and Togrutan slaves for the Zygerrians, both of them were doing hard manual labor, in chains, and tortured for their disobedience.

[Ralin]

Been a long time, but I think that the Attack of the Clones novelization has Anakin thinking more or less that, and that Watto rarely beat him.

[Elheru Aran]

It's a good question.

I'd say it honestly varies a lot, especially depending on where you are. The Republic *may* have some form of guaranteed basic income, at least on the more prosperous worlds. I could definitely see that being a thing among the human population of Naboo. There's still quite a bit of inequality though, the various levels of Coruscant are a pretty good indication of this. There's also worlds with what amount to an engineered society like Mandalore in CW. We've seen slaves in fairly benevolent conditions (see Watto and the Skywalkers) and in harsh conditions (Clone Wars, notably, I don't know if they kept up the whole 'Wookiee slaves built the Death Star' notion in the new EU but there's definitely mention of slavery in Tarkin IIRC).

So I don't think you could say there's any single standard of living across the entire galaxy. You would have to look at it planet by planet. The Core Worlds like Coruscant, Hosnian and what not, you might be able to generalize those. Ditto the Corporate Sector, if that's still a thing.

[Adam Reynolds]

One underlying economic unknown issue in Star Wars is that of fuel prices. The low warship numbers shown indicate that prices are high, as does the fact that a single lost shipment doomed Han. On the flip side, the fact that trade is actually profitable indicates the opposite. Though it is possible that said trade is almost exclusively in certain rare materials that are used in vast quantities, including fuel.

The fact that the Trade Federation was in sufficient economic hardship by new tariffs that starting a war wasn't seen as absurd also fits high fuel prices giving them marginal profits. As does the fact that fluff often indicated that they had exclusive rights and knowledge of hyperspace routes, giving them an economic advantage by being able to travel shorter routes.

[eMeM]

Han was smuggling glitterstim (at least in the EU), drugs are expensive, no idea how did you link expensive fuel to his debt.
In TFA we see an ancient starship which haven't been flown in years yet it has enough fuel for hyperspace travel.
And there is also the battle of Endor, if fuel is so expensive why would the Rebel fighters jump to hyperspace on their own instead of being carried?

[NecronLord]

Han was smuggling glitterstim (at least in the EU), drugs are expensive, no idea how did you link expensive fuel to his debt.
In TFA we see an ancient starship which haven't been flown in years yet it has enough fuel for hyperspace travel.
And there is also the battle of Endor, if fuel is so expensive why would the Rebel fighters jump to hyperspace on their own instead of being carried?

To shorten the time to destroy the Death Star and topple the evil empire. Watch the attack; the fighters are flying for the Death Star when they realize the shield is up:

LANDO
Break off the attack! The shield is still up.

Even if the ships were fuelled by liquid mithril and unicorn tears, the ships assigned to destroying the evil Emperor having fuel is not difficult to credit. When they arrived the rebel fighters went directly for the hole in the Death Star.

[Adam Reynolds]

Han was smuggling glitterstim (at least in the EU), drugs are expensive, no idea how did you link expensive fuel to his debt.
In TFA we see an ancient starship which haven't been flown in years yet it has enough fuel for hyperspace travel.
And there is also the battle of Endor, if fuel is so expensive why would the Rebel fighters jump to hyperspace on their own instead of being carried?

Drugs are expensive indeed, but in reality, losing cargo every once in a while is the price of doing business. Drug smugglers aren't threatened with death for dropping a single shipment, especially when they are about to be jumped by the US Coast Guard(or equivalent). It is seen as prudent behavior. The fact that it is a problem in Star Wars indicates that there must be another factor. Expensive fuel would justify this.

The reasonable conclusion as far as starships is that it is a question of size. If it scales exponentially, it would explain why fighters can have their own hyperdrives but there are so few capital ships. The Rebel fleet's jump also can't have been all that far. The endurance of pilots to remain in their fighters is a limiting factor, especially considering that this would be the fight of their lives. It also explains why small freighters are profitable.

TFA and the Falcon is an odd case under this theory, but Ukar Plutt was reasonably well off by the standards of a shithole like Jakku and probably kept the Falcon as an emergency escape vehicle of some sort. I subscribe to the theory that he is connected to The Resistance and Rey's mother and thus the Falcon was part of that(likely actually intended so that Rey would steal it and thus hopefully run into Han, who had his sensors rigged to look for it).

The expensive fuel theory is a way of explaining why we never see the raw numbers that we reasonably should at the capital ship scale. Even the Battle of Corruscant appears to have hundreds of ships rather than the thousands that it reasonable should. In the current continuity, Endor and Jakku were considered enough to militarily break the back of the Empire. Such low numbers needs an explanation, even if the majority of the crumbling is political rather than military(which I also subscribe to).

Expensive fuel also justifies why the Rebels didn't try to run from the dedicated fighter base at Yavin and why they were willing to throw away personnel to save equipment on Hoth.

Even if the ships were fuelled by liquid mithril and unicorn tears, the ships assigned to destroying the evil Emperor having fuel is not difficult to credit. When they arrived the rebel fighters went directly for the hole in the Death Star.

There is also the fact that the Rebel fleet clearly staged at Sullest because it was such a short distance to jump. It was close enough that Vader recognized that it was there.

[NecronLord]

Han was smuggling glitterstim (at least in the EU), drugs are expensive, no idea how did you link expensive fuel to his debt.
In TFA we see an ancient starship which haven't been flown in years yet it has enough fuel for hyperspace travel.
And there is also the battle of Endor, if fuel is so expensive why would the Rebel fighters jump to hyperspace on their own instead of being carried?

Drugs are expensive indeed, but in reality, losing cargo every once in a while is the price of doing business. Drug smugglers aren't threatened with death for dropping a single shipment

In absolute fairness, Jabba was perhaps trying to get him to pay that back for some time before sending the bounty hunters.

[Adam Reynolds]

Han was smuggling glitterstim (at least in the EU), drugs are expensive, no idea how did you link expensive fuel to his debt.
In TFA we see an ancient starship which haven't been flown in years yet it has enough fuel for hyperspace travel.
And there is also the battle of Endor, if fuel is so expensive why would the Rebel fighters jump to hyperspace on their own instead of being carried?

Drugs are expensive indeed, but in reality, losing cargo every once in a while is the price of doing business. Drug smugglers aren't threatened with death for dropping a single shipment

In absolute fairness, Jabba was perhaps trying to get him to pay that back for some time before sending the bounty hunters.

But then the fact that he was having a hard time repaying the debt is also consistent with expensive fuel.

[Lord Revan]

Maybe, maybe not too many unknown variables to be sure, for example we don't know if it was just "one shipment" for all we know it could be just the last of several losses Han had caused for Jabba. there also could be things like forging permits or what ever to consider.

[Khaat]

To be fair, Greedo was overstepping and trying to make a name for himself:

GREEDO: It's too late. You should have paid him when you had the chance. Jabba's put a price on your head, so large that every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you. I'm lucky I found you first.
HAN: Yeah, but this time I got the money.
GREEDO: If you give it to me, I might forget I found you.

Bolded sections - Solo's been given opportunities to pay it back, and got caught in lying about it already.
It's also possible Jabba, being a crimelord, is wary of Solo maybe setting himself up as a rival with contraband stolen and "dumped". Jabba's own people are happy to defy him for a buck, so the extended docking bay 94 scene (where Jabba doesn't just gun Solo down) suggests that maybe Greedo was getting too big for his britches in Jabba's court, and Jabba wanted Solo to do the dirty work (win/win.)

[Simon_Jester]

But then the fact that he was having a hard time repaying the debt is also consistent with expensive fuel.

Yes, but not with stupidly expensive fuel. Basically, it wouldn't even be possible for light freighters like the Falcon to smuggle goods if there weren't a reasonable selection of legitimate goods and cargoes that such freighters could profitably carry. Otherwise, all such ships would be pulled over and searched constantly. Sort of like how everyone gets suspicious when they see a "freighter" that is essentially just a speedboat, because what could they make any money carrying besides drugs and other contraband?

Fuel may be a significant fraction of ongoing upkeep for a spaceship, but it can't be so ridiculous that it isn't economical to use ships to move relatively mundane cargos.

[Elheru Aran]

But then the fact that he was having a hard time repaying the debt is also consistent with expensive fuel.

Yes, but not with stupidly expensive fuel. Basically, it wouldn't even be possible for light freighters like the Falcon to smuggle goods if there weren't a reasonable selection of legitimate goods and cargoes that such freighters could profitably carry. Otherwise, all such ships would be pulled over and searched constantly. Sort of like how everyone gets suspicious when they see a "freighter" that is essentially just a speedboat, because what could they make any money carrying besides drugs and other contraband?

Fuel may be a significant fraction of ongoing upkeep for a spaceship, but it can't be so ridiculous that it isn't economical to use ships to move relatively mundane cargos.

This.

If fuel is so ridiculously expensive, nobody would be flying smaller craft. You'd have a situation like Dune, with ridiculously huge transports carrying massive quantities of cargo and passengers.

I'm okay with fuel being expensive, that's fair enough, but not stupid-expensive. It's just part of operating costs, and arguably one could improve performance with higher qualities of fuel that would cost more.

No, Han was derelict in meeting 'obligations' to Jabba, and was under due suspicion/punishment for it. The fuel *might* have been part of it, but only in the general costs of running the Falcon. Something like:

HAN: Hey, Jabba? I need some money...
JABBA: Sure, but you know it's not free, right? What you going to do for me?
HAN: Well. I don't know, I heard there was a guy with some stuff I could move...
JABBA: There might be a guy, yeah. You move that stuff, I could see my way to helping you out.
HAN: Great! I need 500 credits for gas and you know how much for the stuff, right?

Something along those lines. Perhaps not so cliche.

[NecronLord]

How well off is the average person in Star Wars relative to someone alive in the present?

I was thinking about this in the context that despite being slaves, Anakin and his mother actually live surprisingly well, with enough leftovers to feed Qui-Gon and company and enough spare time for Anakin to build a protocol droid and podracer. Probably rather better than the average standard of living on present day Earth. Luke's family similarly has a sprawling estate(though admittedly on a desert planet where space is cheap) as well as two landspeeders and an airspeeder. There is no indication that they are especially well off by Tatooine standards.

An important question is, do you mean under the Republic/Hutts or the Empire? There's ample evidence that the Empire was deliberately impoverishing people and enslaving whole species; Biggs says that even Owen and Beru's farm was under threat of being taken off them by the Empire in the Deleted Scenes of ANH, and we see in Rebels that the farm nationalization programmes under Tarkin did not recompense the farmers, instead condemning them to starvation. What we see of the Empire indicates they're deliberately pursuing policies that enhance the power of the state over personal prosperity. At the extreme end we see the Empire deliberately engaged in starving colonies via blockade, though for unstated reasons.

The contrast between Lothal City before and after the Empire is remarkable and implies a lot about the people living in it. Link.

Some of that may be damage due to the Clone Wars, perhaps, but even in terms of clean air there's an obvious difference, and it seems a lot of resources have been Ploughed into the massive imperial garrison and arms factory instead of rebuilding the civilian city.

[Elheru Aran]

One wonders whether that has to do with the Republic basically going broke during the Clone Wars, and the Empire inherited not only the Republic's debt but the cost of both reconstructing Clone Wars devastation and trying to incorporate former Separatist territories back into their sphere of influence. On a galactic scale, this could be fairly staggering, especially if the Empire was continuing a wartime ramp-up of military production in building Star Destroyers and the Death Star. This is particularly important when you consider that LFL/Disney is apparently taking a minimalist stance now.

[NecronLord]

The Empire did nationalize their chief creditor however. It's more likely that the economic damage of lining up most of the major megacorporations on one side of the war and then kicking the shit out of them did some permanent damage, than national debt, I'd say.

Enslaving whole species and removing them from the galactic economy also can't be doing much good.

[Elheru Aran]

So, essentially, the Imperial period is dealing with an galactic equivalent of the Great Depression?

[NecronLord]

That's a subtext of Rebels at least. Tarkintown is a reference to Hoovervilles I believe.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Doesn't the ROTS opening crawl say something like "The Republic spends it's waning wealth on grand fleets and armies to defend the Core?" That certainly sounds like money is running out.

[Elheru Aran]

It makes sense, I suppose, if you look at the Clone Wars as an WWI analogue... just with more spaceships and special effects. Widespread economic devastation across the higher end of the galactic power spectrum leading to a severe recession/depression afterwards. It's not until the post-OT era that the Republic starts recovering by sharing the burden with the Imperial Remnant, and the First Order could be considered a parallel to the Nazi Party (as though the parallel wasn't obvious enough anyway).

The economic consequences of the Clone Wars could well have been part of Palpatine's grand scheme, if you look at some of the old EU anyway and buy into the whole "he's an EEEEEEEVIL SITH who wants to eat EVERYBODY's SOULS" bollocks. More likely it was simply easier to rule over an economically subjugated society by extending the promise of future prosperity and wealth if 'everybody does their part' for the Empire.

[Crazedwraith]

Doesn't the ROTS opening crawl say something like "The Republic spends it's waning wealth on grand fleets and armies to defend the Core?" That certainly sounds like money is running out.

Nope.

War! The Republic is crumbling
under attacks by the ruthless
Sith Lord, Count Dooku.
There are heroes on both sides.
Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the
fiendish droid leader, General
Grievous, has swept into the
Republic capital and kidnapped
Chancellor Palpatine, leader of
the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army
attempts to flee the besieged
capital with their valuable
hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a
desperate mission to rescue the
captive Chancellor....

Not a sausage. Could that be from a clone wars episode or something?