Even though many of the present savers and owners of capital should diminish or discontinue their functions on account of a fall in the rate of interest, a reduction would not necessarily take place in the supply of capital. The function of these "marginal savers" would in all probability be performed by other persons, who would be compelled to increase their accumulations in order to provide as well for the future as they had previously been able to provide with a smaller capital at a higher rate of interest.[143] _Whether at Least Two Per Cent. Is Necessary_ While admitting that the present rate is unnecessarily high, Professor Cassel maintains that a certain important class of savers would diminish very considerably their accumulations if the interest rate should fall much below two per cent. This class comprises those persons whose main object in saving is a fund which will some day support them from its interest. At six per cent. a person can accumulate in about twelve years a sum sufficient to provide him with an interest-income equal to the amount annually saved. For example; two thousand dollars put aside every year, and subjected to compound interest, will aggregate in twelve years a principal capable of yielding an annual income of two thousand dollars. At two per cent. the same amount of yearly saving will not lead to the same income in less than thirty-five years. If the rate be one and one-half per cent., forty-seven years will be required to produce the desired income. Hence, concludes Cassel, if the rate falls below two per cent. the average man will decide that life is too short to provide for the future by means of an interest-income, and will expect to draw upon his principal. This means that he will not need to save as much as when he sought to accumulate a capital large enough to support him out of its interest alone.