Robert Kennedy on GDP

Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 while running for nomination as the US President. Someone sent to me the following quotation (which I am not able to verify) from him about GNP:

QUOTE
... Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.
UNQUOTE

In our drive to increase the GDP of Singapore, we may be making the same mistake mentioned by Robert Kennedy, that we are degrading the quality of life for the people.

Tan Kin Lian