Measurement of GDP does not measure the nation's true well-being

I was reading an article previously that talked about how the measurement of national income becoming the most influential statistic in the world, and yet misleading. Simon Kuznets, one of the main originators of GDP, has warned of this:

The welfare of a nation can, therefore, scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income. If the GDP is up, why is America down? Distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth, between costs and returns, and between the short and long run. Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what.

I totally agree with him that to effectively measuring progress, wealth and well-being requires indices that are as clear and appealing as GDP but also more inclusive than GDP, like incorporating social and environmental costs or benefits. Pollution itself is an indicator that most totally ignore. Many governments are concentrating on the quantity of growth, not quality of growth. The growth itself also does not talk about broad base growth as "over achievers" will screw up the numbers.

I think it is time for people to stop looking only at the GDP numbers and to start to look at the other indicators. There are costs to growth and the question is, is it worth it?