Page:The Economics of Unemployment.djvu/39
developed countries, belongs to this almost automatic accumulation of the surplus incomes of the well-to-do. I speak of it as 'almost automatic,' meaning that its provision involves no appreciable sacrifice in current satisfaction from consumption on the part of its possessors, and very little thought, excepting as regards its application for investment.
That the large incomes resulting from the inequality of wealth distribution enlarge the volume of savings, available for the increase and improvement of the capital structure of industry, is the accepted view of most economists.[1]
An interesting, though necessarily speculative, estimate of savings in relation to incomes was presented by Mr. Ireson in 1910,[2] to the following effect:
| Families with | Average Income per Family. |
Average Spending per Family. |
| £ | £ | |
| Over £5.000 | 12,100 | 7,600 |
| From £700 to £5,000 | 1,054 | 690 |
| From £160 to £700 | 357 | 329 |
| From £52 to £160 | 142 | 138 |
| Under £52 | 40 | 40 |
There is nothing unreasonable in the conclusion, suggested by this table and supported by a priori con-
- ↑ Cf. Pigou, Wealth and Welfare, p. 354; Stamp, The Principles of Taxation, p. 164; Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, p. 19.
- ↑ The People's Progress, p. 146. Mallock, Capital, War and Wages, pp. 34-35, estimates that "at present some three-fourths of these savings — the total being about £15 per head of the occupied population — come from the richer classes, the savings of those per head being about £170, and those of the poorer majority being not so much as £4."