These expenses are a sign of distress, not increased well-being. We cannot assume that a growing GDP indicates that we are doing well. We have to look more closely at what money is used for. We have to distinguish expenditures that truly benefit society from those that signal trouble. And while crime, pollution, sickness and natural disasters all make the economy grow, the GDP ignores the value of volunteer and unpaid work, of leisure time, and of our natural resources as capital assets.
Every business accounts for the sale of assets from their inventory.
Yet we ignore the destruction and consumption of our natural resource assets and even count the loss as gain. When we take lumber out of a forest or fish from the sea we only count the gain from selling lumber and fish, we don't record that we have also reduced the stock of trees or fish or any impacts such reductions might cause. There is an explanation for this omission. These expectations are no longer valid. There are far more people using more powerful technology than ever before.