The Flaws of GDP

In my opinion, GDP is not the best possible measure of our nation's well-being. It excludes some factors that are necessary to calculate an accurate measure. For instance, it doesn't include the value of stay-at-home parents. Even though they don't affect the economy in terms of actual money, they sacrifice their time to help their families, and their hard work should be accounted for. Something else that is excluded from GDP is the satisfaction or lack therof that the consumers have after using a product or service. Basically, it completely ignores the emotional value of any and all goods and services. Also, perhaps one of the most important exclusions of GDP is the black market. Although the government likes to pretend it's nonexistent, the black market is real and a lot of illegal transactions take place in it that are not calculated along with GDP. Besides just illegal transactions, there are illegal immigrants in our country who purchase things and are not accounted for. Between all the illegal activity going on in the United States, there's a lot of economic productivity that the GDP doesn't cover. Another factor I thought of that isn't included in GDP is the increasing or diminishing value of second hand sales. If someone buys a house, GDP doesn't account for possible loans or debt the consumer might face down the road. Overall, it seems like GDP is a decent measure of our economic well-being, but it is definitely an understatement of our actual economy and could be improved to produce more accurate calculations.