All of these services are necessary for a healthy economy and are very costly to replicate. Thus in reality the draining of the wetland did not help to boost the economy but to undermine it. Another of the many examples of harm to the environment that increases the GDP is pollution. The biggest reason that the misuse of the GDP continues is that most of its harmful effects are long term. It can take decades or more for damage to the environment to begin effecting peoples lives.
Problems relating to children often take a long time to show up as well.
When the goal is increasing the GDP the result is that the next generation is neglected. The GDP increases as more adults move out of the household economy and into marketplace jobs. If these adults are also parents they are forced to leave their children with a childcare provider. The result of this can be seen in the parallel trends of increasing time parents spend in the workplace and increasing incidence of youth crime. Another example of the lack of importance placed by economic decision makers on making sure that children are raised well is the recent proposed cut in federal funding for education.