DC Econ: The Numbers Game: Do the Rich Get all the Gains?

How can we ensure that the same people are being followed over time to prevent distorted data? We can ensure this by using panel data. This way, the same people will be followed over time and it will show the more accurate data. By using panel data, if we look at the percent change of real income from 1987-2007 We would see that the poorest group has actually increased over 100%, while the richest of the rich have actually decreased around -6%. By using panel data, we see that although yes, the rich are richer today then 40 years ago, the poor, and middle class are also more wealthy today than that of 40 years ago. Also, the rich are not a fixed group of people. People move up and down from poor to rich throughout their life and other generations.
Why isn’t panel data used more frequently to report income and mobility statistics? Panel data is used less for many reasons, one is that it is just not that popular. Another, I believe is that people who hate capitalism don't use panel data because then it would disprove their false claims that the American economy is broken, or that capitalism is selfish and racist. Which is not true. What makes Americas economy so great is that there is equal opportunity for everyone. If you start off in the poor class, you could move up to the rich class through hard work and innovation. That is unlike a lot of other countries.