62 The Stock Market Crash—And After 
nation’s industries; more conservative buyers would 
own them through their stock holdings. 
This new set of stock owners will doubtless be 
more cautious in buying goods. They will save 
more money for investment. On this account, but 
chiefly on account of the dislocation, consumer de- 
mand will be affected. But if the industrial leaders 
maintain their confidence in the soundness of business 
conditions and the prospects of future prosperity, 
there can be little or no recession in industry. 
That the purchasing power of the bulk of the na- 
tion cannot be greatly impaired may be inferred 
from the studies, just published, by the National 
Bureau of Economic Research, which show that 99 
per cent of income receivers in the United States 
have incomes below $9,000 and that 50 per cent of 
these incomes are below $1,100. It seems incon- 
ceivable that any substantial number of those whose 
incomes are below $1,100 should have suffered loss 
in the recent stock market crash. It is improbable 
that a large percentage of the 9g per cent of income 
receivers having incomes less than $9,000 were in 
the stock market and suffered serious loss of income. 
These incomes consist mostly of wages and salaries, 
and the recipients could have little or no concern 
with a stock market panic. 
If this be true, the redistribution of corporate 
ownership due to the crash is mostly confined to the 
upper one or two per cent of the population. The 
result may be a somewhat greater concentration of 
stock ownership and wealth in the hands of a small