Okay, let's go with a real world analogy. Even the Nazis, if you want.
Except the Nazis control the known world. They enforce peace. Anyone who does rebel is either made a slave or executed. People are largely free to do what they want, and the only people grumbling are the Jews, who have a largely autonomous country, and are given religious freedom. But these Nazis have slaves. Only problem is that they keep the slaves well treated. In fact, harming a slave is a crime. Not to mention that a large amount of administrative work is done by both slaves and freedmen.
Your average slave, in this hypothetical Nazi empire, has no access to any weapons. If he's lucky, he might have a hoe or pitchfork. Maybe. Among these slaves are also a large quantity of what today would be known as pop stars. The average non-slave doesn't have a better lot than your average slave, and in fact is more likely to be starving in the street. And goodness help you if you get imprisoned. You face a slow death of starvation, and if you're unlucky, you might die of dehydration first. Because, you see, nobody feeds or waters the prisoners. Unless you have some friends, who might be able to bring food to you.
On the other hand, the military is a great life, and a lot of the poor are ready to join up. If you're not a Nazi, you will be by the end (which is worth it in itself, because without being a Nazi, you have basically no rights. Just that no-one bothers to harm you enough.), and if you ARE a Nazi, after those twenty five years, you get your own little farm to live on, with the slaves required to keep it running. Which you would be needing, because those slaves are far more likely to read than you are, so you'd do well to keep them happy. Or they might, you know, just decide to take a percentage of the profits for themselves.