4 ms·

Show HN: I built a dashboard of official data ahead of French elections

53 points by Frajedo 4y ago

FlyNestor 4y ago
A trending subject in France, and worldwide, is the inflation. It would be interesting to build an inflation calculator for France. Example of a website on inflation: inflationchart. com
- Frajedo 4y ago
  Yes! Currently working on selecting the best source of information about this topic and thinking about how to display it appropriately (e.g. comparing French inflation with EU average or world average?). I am also working on the climate impact of the french population :)
thenaturalist 4y ago
Out of curiosity: What is/was your motivation behind this and how does it correlate to elections? My baseline assumption looking at this is that in all of these numbers, there are massive systematic, global - and hence exogenous to France or any single state - forces at play (like globalization, the Financial crisis and the following decade of inflationary money printing) which shape most of these indicators. Showing election dates of French presidents looks like a classic and rather obvious case of correlation does not imply causation. Might well be that I don't have the full picture though and I was not following French campaigns. Is there a public debate/ general public opinion in France that presidents had significant influence on these indicators shown?
- xwolfi 4y ago
  It's hard to say there's a direct causation. I left France myself because I felt the problems shown in these indicators were so deeply rooted in the French psyche that there was simply nothing to do. For instance, dropping the unemployment rate to a level akin to Germany would require us to see life like Germans do: practically, minding social cost of social welfare, admitting mistakes and correcting course rather than doubling down etc. I voted Macron because he was the only one suggesting maybe the French people are the root cause rather than the political color of the president, but I understand this guy did it that way: everyone will make the president own these indicators and judge him accordingly, and of course be permanently disappointed and vote more and more radical. If you look at the landscape this election it's 30% "fuck it all it's the foreigners" LePen, 30% "fuck it all it's the 1%" Melenchon and 30% "fucking hell dudes, we dont know what it could be but the 2 others are scary so let's just stick to the evil we know" Macron. I've never heard someone clearly stating without being shunned immediately "guys, the problem, I think I know, it's simply... all of us" :D And yes even external factors will be blamed on the president, especially if he proposes to adapt to it: why would we proud light of the world adapt to american or chinese competition, we can simply do nothing at all while posturing on the streets we re fighting for our "social acquisitions" as we call our rigid policies.
  - dopidopHN 4y ago
    I suspect you moved to the US? I did that as well, out of love for a human being; not a disdain of the political surrounding. Boy oh boy, French have it good. They have no idea. Maybe they do have it good because they keep asking for more. I don’t even find the country specifically dis functional ( compared to the US ) But that just my own personal data point. Also, I live in the buttcrack of the US, maybe it’s not fair. ( and I love that said buttcrack :) ! )
    - xwolfi 4y ago
      I moved to Hong Kong, which has its own issues. Out of love for a human being, for sure, but let s say I didnt convince that sweet other to move to France hehe. She would have if I asked, but as an unemployed english speaking Pakhistani in France, she would have had more trouble than me in a fully employed society like HK. It's disfunctional if you live in it and pay taxes. For me we waste our taxes if we cant make a balanced budget, it s not even a crazy philosophy: we live beyond our means and borrow from others to calm down the electorate, we re cheating. In Hong Kong my taxes go to a surplus, you wont hear me criticise the gov much, because at least they got their basics right. I pay my 12k USD yearly with a proud smile that I contribute to building something that s coherent if not perfectly democratic. While I paid my 2k euros in France grumbling it s all going to waste anyway. You can also guess the salary increase you have working in a place where unemployment is a meaningless concept, because no welfare. I dislike the US as much as the next guy and do not see it as a proper model. Let s not even talk of tax surplus there. Germany sounds like they try to do politics the right way but it s not like I know it all that much beyond their results.
      - dopidopHN 4y ago
        I pay roughly the same proportion of my income here than in France: a big month of salary. ( just a wildly different salary … ) In France I do it happily, we get so much in return. From social redistribution to infrastructure. Here, oh god, I understand why the average murican hates taxes and government : they get close to nothing in return. In regards to States balancing their budget. It’s tempting to think that what is good for a individual is good for the state. Let’s just say I subscribe to Keynesian economics, so I’m fine with a state spending.
- Frajedo 4y ago
  > Out of curiosity: What is/was your motivation behind this and how does it correlate to elections? What motivated me is the simple fact that during this presidential campaign we would have one candidate saying that his presidential balance has been "very good", and on the other side all the opponents have been constantly stating that it has been a "disaster". During these last months, I have been unable to find a "neutral" and global way of see the impact Macron has had during the last 5 years. I therefore wanted to build this website in order to have a dashboard showing national statistics on key topics. > Showing election dates of French presidents looks like a classic and rather obvious case of correlation does not imply causation. I wanted to show the presidential election dates precisely to showcase this: It really almost doesn't matter which president France has. I believe that the macroeconomic variations follow World/European variations. And unfortunately, I feel that too many people believe that the presidents are "destroying" or "saving" the country. > Might well be that I don't have the full picture though and I was not following French campaigns. Is there a public debate/ general public opinion in France that presidents had significant influence on these indicators shown? I guess that there has probably been debates and studies about this, but from my experience I can say that presidents cannot influence too much the trends that the country is following.
  - thenaturalist 4y ago
    Thank you very much for sharing this context, it's really helpful! I just had a conversation with a French friend whose opinion on the election and the design of the institutions closely matches what you're describing. I'm a little ashamed to say that albeit having learned French quite a long time in school and considering myself to be interested in the affairs of your country as a German neighbour I had hardly a notion of how polar your presedential election process and the public discours around it and related policies by candidates seems to be set up. Thanks again for building this!
  - xwolfi 4y ago
    As a French abroad, so maybe more detached, I agree with you ! Maybe the president could have an impact if he did anything a bit revolutionary, but since they never do and simply soft manage the country to prevent any huge swing, it seems like they dont matter. I guess we could say this is an accomplishment to manage to stick to european averages, one president could pull and Erdogan, move back to the Franc and explode the inflation or someth :D
altdataseller 4y ago
What tools did you use to build these charts?
- Frajedo 4y ago
  Ng2-charts and the chartjs-plugin-annotation, the website has been built using ant design NgZorro :)

53 points by Frajedo 4y ago

A trending subject in France, and worldwide, is the inflation. It would be interesting to build an inflation calculator for France. Example of a website on inflation: inflationchart. com

Frajedo 4y ago
Yes! Currently working on selecting the best source of information about this topic and thinking about how to display it appropriately (e.g. comparing French inflation with EU average or world average?). I am also working on the climate impact of the french population :)

thenaturalist 4y ago

Out of curiosity: What is/was your motivation behind this and how does it correlate to elections? My baseline assumption looking at this is that in all of these numbers, there are massive systematic, global - and hence exogenous to France or any single state - forces at play (like globalization, the Financial crisis and the following decade of inflationary money printing) which shape most of these indicators. Showing election dates of French presidents looks like a classic and rather obvious case of correlation does not imply causation. Might well be that I don't have the full picture though and I was not following French campaigns. Is there a public debate/ general public opinion in France that presidents had significant influence on these indicators shown?

xwolfi 4y ago
It's hard to say there's a direct causation. I left France myself because I felt the problems shown in these indicators were so deeply rooted in the French psyche that there was simply nothing to do. For instance, dropping the unemployment rate to a level akin to Germany would require us to see life like Germans do: practically, minding social cost of social welfare, admitting mistakes and correcting course rather than doubling down etc. I voted Macron because he was the only one suggesting maybe the French people are the root cause rather than the political color of the president, but I understand this guy did it that way: everyone will make the president own these indicators and judge him accordingly, and of course be permanently disappointed and vote more and more radical. If you look at the landscape this election it's 30% "fuck it all it's the foreigners" LePen, 30% "fuck it all it's the 1%" Melenchon and 30% "fucking hell dudes, we dont know what it could be but the 2 others are scary so let's just stick to the evil we know" Macron. I've never heard someone clearly stating without being shunned immediately "guys, the problem, I think I know, it's simply... all of us" :D And yes even external factors will be blamed on the president, especially if he proposes to adapt to it: why would we proud light of the world adapt to american or chinese competition, we can simply do nothing at all while posturing on the streets we re fighting for our "social acquisitions" as we call our rigid policies.
- dopidopHN 4y ago
  I suspect you moved to the US? I did that as well, out of love for a human being; not a disdain of the political surrounding. Boy oh boy, French have it good. They have no idea. Maybe they do have it good because they keep asking for more. I don’t even find the country specifically dis functional ( compared to the US ) But that just my own personal data point. Also, I live in the buttcrack of the US, maybe it’s not fair. ( and I love that said buttcrack :) ! )
  - xwolfi 4y ago
    I moved to Hong Kong, which has its own issues. Out of love for a human being, for sure, but let s say I didnt convince that sweet other to move to France hehe. She would have if I asked, but as an unemployed english speaking Pakhistani in France, she would have had more trouble than me in a fully employed society like HK. It's disfunctional if you live in it and pay taxes. For me we waste our taxes if we cant make a balanced budget, it s not even a crazy philosophy: we live beyond our means and borrow from others to calm down the electorate, we re cheating. In Hong Kong my taxes go to a surplus, you wont hear me criticise the gov much, because at least they got their basics right. I pay my 12k USD yearly with a proud smile that I contribute to building something that s coherent if not perfectly democratic. While I paid my 2k euros in France grumbling it s all going to waste anyway. You can also guess the salary increase you have working in a place where unemployment is a meaningless concept, because no welfare. I dislike the US as much as the next guy and do not see it as a proper model. Let s not even talk of tax surplus there. Germany sounds like they try to do politics the right way but it s not like I know it all that much beyond their results.
    - dopidopHN 4y ago
      I pay roughly the same proportion of my income here than in France: a big month of salary. ( just a wildly different salary … ) In France I do it happily, we get so much in return. From social redistribution to infrastructure. Here, oh god, I understand why the average murican hates taxes and government : they get close to nothing in return. In regards to States balancing their budget. It’s tempting to think that what is good for a individual is good for the state. Let’s just say I subscribe to Keynesian economics, so I’m fine with a state spending.
Frajedo 4y ago
> Out of curiosity: What is/was your motivation behind this and how does it correlate to elections? What motivated me is the simple fact that during this presidential campaign we would have one candidate saying that his presidential balance has been "very good", and on the other side all the opponents have been constantly stating that it has been a "disaster". During these last months, I have been unable to find a "neutral" and global way of see the impact Macron has had during the last 5 years. I therefore wanted to build this website in order to have a dashboard showing national statistics on key topics. > Showing election dates of French presidents looks like a classic and rather obvious case of correlation does not imply causation. I wanted to show the presidential election dates precisely to showcase this: It really almost doesn't matter which president France has. I believe that the macroeconomic variations follow World/European variations. And unfortunately, I feel that too many people believe that the presidents are "destroying" or "saving" the country. > Might well be that I don't have the full picture though and I was not following French campaigns. Is there a public debate/ general public opinion in France that presidents had significant influence on these indicators shown? I guess that there has probably been debates and studies about this, but from my experience I can say that presidents cannot influence too much the trends that the country is following.
- thenaturalist 4y ago
  Thank you very much for sharing this context, it's really helpful! I just had a conversation with a French friend whose opinion on the election and the design of the institutions closely matches what you're describing. I'm a little ashamed to say that albeit having learned French quite a long time in school and considering myself to be interested in the affairs of your country as a German neighbour I had hardly a notion of how polar your presedential election process and the public discours around it and related policies by candidates seems to be set up. Thanks again for building this!
- xwolfi 4y ago
  As a French abroad, so maybe more detached, I agree with you ! Maybe the president could have an impact if he did anything a bit revolutionary, but since they never do and simply soft manage the country to prevent any huge swing, it seems like they dont matter. I guess we could say this is an accomplishment to manage to stick to european averages, one president could pull and Erdogan, move back to the Franc and explode the inflation or someth :D

altdataseller 4y ago

What tools did you use to build these charts?

Frajedo 4y ago
Ng2-charts and the chartjs-plugin-annotation, the website has been built using ant design NgZorro :)