Are Subtractions Necessary, Too? (II)

As such, they probably should be subtracted from real GDP to get to a better measure of the final goods relevant to individuals, but the government statisticians won’t hear of it. It is also important to recognize that our urbanized, industrialized society has some drawbacks. Big cities make large-scale commercial activities (and thus more market goods) feasible.
But they also bring with them a variety of urban disamenities, such as congestion, noise, and litter. If we are interested in some measure of welfare, we should make deductions from real GDP for such sources of dissatisfaction. (The same reasoning applies to pollution in general.) It is difficult to put a precise numerical value on them, however, and so none of the official statistics are adjusted.