Several possible objections were raised early to this argument. One, entertained by Feldstein himself, was that by inducing earlier retirement social security might lead people to save more during each of their fewer workyears in order to provide more assets for their more numerous years of retirement. To the extent that this occurs, the increased saving of the higher incomes of the current generation might outbalance the increased dis-saving out of the wealth accumulated by the poorer or less numerous older generation. Feldstein argues that whether the wealth effect or the retirement effect would predominate is an empirical question. According to him, the empirical findings indicated that the wealth effect causing more consumption (and hence less saving) was considerably greater than the opposite, retirement effect.