There is no "happiness plateau" (or it's much higher than we thought). Those lines tell us three important things. First, the lines go up. More money, more happiness. Second, the lines go up in parallel, more or less. Across language, culture, religion, ethnic background, the same amount of extra money seems to buy the similar amount of extra happiness. Third, the lines go up in parallel and they don't flatten out. There is no "Easterlin plateau", no satiation point, no bright line where money suddenly loses the ability to improve well-being.

mo money, better problems

So the "mo problems" are better?

There's more to life than being happy.

http://pandawhale.com/post/14360/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy-emily-esfahani-smith-the-atlantic

"After about $75k a year, money has a minimal effect on happiness."

Source: http://pandawhale.com/post/5365/the-things-that-are-proven-to-make-you-happier

but the new study says otherwise, correct?

Two important points:

1) None of the data points lie above the $75K level.  Though I should point out that this is per capita GDP, and the other studies were done on individuals who earned different incomes.

2) The income scale is logarithmic; if you look a the trendline, to go from an average satisfaction level of 3.5 to 7, you need to push per capita GDP from $320 dollars per year to $64,000 dollars per year.  In other words, to double happiness, you need to increase per capita GDP 200X.

Chris, thanks for the clarification.

Jared, I don't think the new study negates the $75k study because as Chris points out, it ends at $64k. At least till that $64k point, more money does correlate with more happiness.

Here's the Eric Barker article on money having minimal effect on happiness after $75k:

http://www.bakadesuyo.com/at-what-annual-salary-does-money-stop-making