The only reason this American would complain about such a chart is that it is framed in terms of France versus the U.S.A. In fact, France and the U.S.A. are a lot more alike than many pairs of countries, and this sort of discussion is simply fraternal bickering.

If you really want to do a comparison, do it with Ghana, or Peru, or Indonesia. There are happy people in the poorest places in India and Africa. Does this mean that we should simply all become monks?

Besides, who ever proposed the equation GDP = happiness. Attempts to increase GDP are simply that, attempts to increase GDP. If you want to increase happiness, then define a metric and figure out how to improve it.