Bounce to the Ounce

[00:00] Alright, Coalson, it is that time of the week. It is time for some under Googles. How can I help you?
[00:19] We do under Googles. That was the play of super excited told us we had to
[00:27] We signed up for it in the end it's gonna be better and more true than Google can give you well, this was
[00:38] Jason's fault last week. He used the phrase
[00:42] bang for your buck and
[00:46] I thought well, that's real interesting because I feel like has a couple layers
[00:50] I
[00:53] vaguely recall that a dollar was named for a buck because of buckskins and
[01:00] That's all I got and so that's why I've got to go to my three smartest friends to get me closer to the answer
[01:09] Bang for your buck. What does it mean?
[01:13] Where we at what time line is it Shakespeare? I
[01:20] Don't think I don't think I don't think it's Shakespeare on this isn't is it plenty zero there is it? Yeah
[01:25] No, the meaning is just like sort of the the
[01:29] Most efficient use of your money. Yeah, you're getting more more for what you pay for
[01:36] Yeah, yeah
[01:38] And you know, so
[01:40] You know you you want to go buy something and make sure you get your the your best bang for your buck
[01:46] And and I like I said, I have vague
[01:49] memories of
[01:51] Being you know connected directly to
[01:55] Dear skin, I don't know if I'm right or wrong on that, but I'm putting this in the Americas
[02:02] And it being related to the American dollar so I think gives us a timeline but I could be wrong
[02:08] My yeah, my guess is that this is post
[02:12] Buck being used as slang for the dollar, right?
[02:15] So sure that's already a thing and then we're talking about bang for your buck
[02:20] And it this seemed like something out of the 50s or like the advertising
[02:26] Era, I'm thinking like madmen. Like maybe this is like Matt and weren't mattresses basically like a
[02:34] Just invented by
[02:36] a
[02:38] Marketing team, yeah Madison Avenue at some hole
[02:43] Yeah, cuz bang to me like connotes I
[02:47] Don't rocket fuel or something like that. Like you're getting your bang for your buck
[02:52] Well, so you need rockets or bombs before you get bang. I
[02:56] Mean I get like obviously the Chinese had fireworks and gunpowder like
[03:03] 4000 years ago or something like that, right? But
[03:05] I
[03:06] Think that this phrase originates
[03:09] Definitely post buck which what we decided that was like frontiers men or something. Yeah
[03:15] 1800s
[03:17] 1700 1600s new America, right? Yeah or new world
[03:23] Yeah, Harper, what do you think?
[03:27] Yeah, I agree probably American since buck is so uniquely American
[03:35] I mean maybe a little too on the nose, but it may just
[03:40] You know, it could be a wartime saying it could be a civil war thing
[03:45] And you're literally getting more bang for your buck. This gun is more powerful. Yeah
[03:52] Or it could be you know
[03:55] during you know
[03:58] All of the
[04:01] You know major public works projects that we did
[04:05] We blew up a lot of stuff to build roads and tunnels and stuff like that. Oh
[04:10] Yeah, that's actually this is really good dynamite. Yeah
[04:13] Well, but but also like this is yeah
[04:15] This is gonna be worth more in the long run if we blow this thing up now
[04:19] We're gonna get this road later sort of thing
[04:22] That's I like that
[04:24] I'm also thinking like
[04:30] Like just buying fireworks, you know, you get the most like the most bang for your buck
[04:37] So very literal. Yeah, very well, you've got that or or yeah, just buying weapons
[04:44] To take down whatever Americans do love their fireworks. Yeah, love buying
[04:51] Buy them when I remember
[04:53] one particular 4th of July joy at your parents house your pretty your brother was a
[05:00] working in a fireworks factory at the time and
[05:03] And
[05:05] either
[05:07] On the up and up or on the DL brought home a bunch really high-grade fireworks and was launching them
[05:14] Yeah, yeah, I think they were like assembly. Yeah, they were like making that it was
[05:20] They were in they were definitely in in places that
[05:23] They could have caused a lot of trouble if there was a stray spark. Yeah, I remember he had to like
[05:29] whatever like
[05:32] Statify static electricity himself or whatever it like before he went into the factory
[05:37] Got a ground yourself, huh? Yeah
[05:41] Interesting but that's where my mind goes is to buy spying fireworks, you know
[05:47] I could just see that being like, you know that one of those pop-up shops
[05:52] You know best bang for your buck. Okay. Okay. So what what era would that be for you Joey? I mean I do like the I
[06:01] Do like sort of like the 50s
[06:05] You know, that's you know, I don't know when I have no idea
[06:09] But I guess can't be that long ago when people were doing like home fireworks shows
[06:12] I can't I don't think this was I feel like this wasn't like in the in the 1800s, you know, like
[06:19] Right. I don't feel like you're doing that stuff at home. Like the city, you know cities might do them
[06:23] But Asia's been making fireworks for you know
[06:28] No, I get that but I'm just saying like but I don't think that that doesn't count until Americans make them
[06:34] Well, but it does it does go back to the to the buck as the dollar right which again
[06:40] I don't have a real timeline for I don't know when
[06:44] That slang came into the parlance where we started calling a dollar a buck
[06:49] Which is probably which I guess doesn't really matter because we're talking about the phrase bang for your buck
[06:55] Which could be way later, but it gives us some phrase some sense of it, right? So, I mean
[07:02] When did we come up with the American dollar?
[07:06] This is it's got to be after
[07:09] the
[07:10] You know revolution or we did we have we do we have our own dollar before then?
[07:14] We're still yeah. Yeah, we were using
[07:18] The pound before then. Yeah. Okay is that so so I think during the
[07:24] Revolutionary War we started using our own money
[07:28] And there were many people who would not accept it
[07:32] Okay
[07:33] Which was a problem for our?
[07:35] founding
[07:38] Well, there are but there were a bunch of different currencies right like probably oh, yeah
[07:43] Like state or even like individual banks would make their own currency
[07:49] You know wasn't until the banks were nationalized and
[07:54] That'd be early 1800s. Yeah, Hamilton. Yeah
[07:58] Sure. So yeah, that's that's
[08:02] Yeah, turn of 1800s for sure now
[08:06] and then
[08:08] Was there ever a the slang comes from a buck pelt?
[08:13] Is worth a dollar or is that is that was always my understanding?
[08:19] Right, I feel like it just came from people used to trade buck skins as a form of currency basically
[08:26] Okay in the day and then so it wasn't necessarily worth what a dollar is worth. Yeah, okay fair enough
[08:32] No, yeah bartering on the frontier
[08:35] Right, right. Okay, so 1800s we have dollars. We also have buckskins trade
[08:41] At some point we have fireworks
[08:45] Or we have advertising
[08:48] So we're saying 1950 that's what we're saying I would go 20th century, but maybe a little bit earlier
[08:56] Yeah, I do like this idea of the military or the or the or the fireworks where you're actually getting bangs
[09:03] Like it may be very literal
[09:07] Do you I can spend more money on this firework to get a better firework
[09:12] So it seems like we're right on I
[09:18] Think from what I've looked at so far, so
[09:25] More bang for the buck was actually preceded by
[09:29] More bounce to the ounce and advertising slogan used in 1950 to market Pepsi
[09:37] Bounced to the ounce
[09:39] Yeah, I like it Charlie Wilson
[09:43] The infamous Charlie Wilson used it
[09:46] To describe the new look policy of doi de Eisenhower
[09:52] And the bigger the buttons oh
[10:00] That got dark real fast
[10:04] More bounce to the ounce though. I like that
[10:09] It's pretty dope. So so what you're saying is that that at some point somebody was like we're spending money on bombs
[10:20] on nuclear bombs
[10:24] Yeah
[10:26] So Charlie Wilson, let me see if I can remember
[10:29] Slash quickly Wikipedia on my history here
[10:34] He was secretary of defense in her Eisenhower, but didn't he like it yet
[10:40] He like got us into the Korean War or something like that, right?
[10:47] Yeah, there was a movie
[10:51] Was it called Charlie or something like that?
[10:54] Yeah, it's like Charlie Wilson's war
[10:56] Yeah
[10:58] With what's his head? I can't think of
[11:04] Yeah, Charlie Wilson was a
[11:08] Lecterous booze out
[11:12] Okay, I think what Charlie Wilson actually did was get us to back the
[11:23] Freedom fighters in Afghanistan against the USSR. Oh
[11:28] Right, right, right, right. Yep. Yep
[11:33] Which it must have been later though, like he was like a senator or something at the time or
[11:38] Multiple Charlie Wilson's there may be multiple Charlie Wilson's. Okay, so it says that Charlie Wilson used this to
[11:46] phrase in 1954 to summarize the new look policy
[11:51] Security policy during the administration of Eisenhower
[11:55] Bigger bang for your buck I referred to receive more combat power for the armaments it possessed
[12:08] So I think like a lot of idioms we talk about this is probably one of those things that was in common usage
[12:17] Prior to anyone writing it down or deploying it in that campaign
[12:23] according to the phrase finder
[12:26] the first
[12:28] Citation that they could track down was an advertisement in metals and plastics publications 1940
[12:36] They're you know, essentially they said no advertiser would use a colloquial expression in an advert unless it was understandable
[12:43] You know to their audience. So I expect that there may be other citations prior
[12:51] Mm-hmm and to verify it was a completely different Charlie Wilson. Oh
[12:56] Nice from bang for the book
[13:00] Well, so I think we kind of nailed that one
[13:04] We guys were right on that I
[13:08] Do we have enough information on
[13:11] Again, this is probably lost history. But when we started calling the dollar the buck was that just good question
[13:18] I feel like we did that
[13:21] No, maybe in high school
[13:27] That's maybe the way I remember it is a dollar
[13:29] I'm reading the earliest reference was in 1748
[13:42] Yeah, Huff pau article the exchange rate for a cask of whiskey traded to the Native Americans being five bucks
[13:56] Referring to deerskins
[13:58] Five bucks for a castle whiskey. Nice
[14:07] US dollar is officially introduced after passing the Queenage Act of 1792
[14:13] It quickly became the leading item
[14:17] Used as a medium of exchange, but the term buck stuck around and by the night mid 19th century
[14:23] It was mean use is slang term for the dollar
[14:25] Okay
[14:29] nicely done
[14:32] Sorry to end up being about war
[14:36] That's on you. Yeah. Well, like I said, it's Jason's fault. He used it last last episode
[14:43] One idea is that buck is just a shortened form of the word saw buck which is slang for a $10 bill
[14:50] This is not to be because one of the earliest $10 bills featured the Roman numeral X which resembles a saw buck a
[14:58] Frame for holding wood to be chopped and sawed
[15:02] Really, that's a very different very circuit. Yes. Yeah. I like that though. That's nice
[15:15] It's also very different than the other one, which is the real one. I
[15:23] don't think
[15:25] Short of a time machine. We're gonna be able to find that one out for sure. I think that
[15:32] The one that Jason was mentioning seems to have more
[15:36] reference
[15:38] Seems a little stronger. I
[15:41] Mean it just makes
[15:43] more sense, I guess
[15:49] If we're just interestingly he has make sense, I mean we sure what are we doing? That's fair
[15:55] interestingly past the buck
[15:57] It
[15:59] refers to
[16:02] Poker
[16:04] Where a
[16:06] Knife with a buck horn handle was used
[16:12] To indicate whose turn it was to deal. So after your turn I would pass the buck to the next person
[16:18] It was the but it was like the button, right?
[16:21] Well, the buck stops here
[16:23] Don't pass the buck
[16:30] What's your turn
[16:33] I've got
[16:36] In
[16:37] 1748 there was a document that said that a someone in Ohio was
[16:44] Robbed of the value of 300 bucks
[16:49] But that didn't actually mean 300 bucks skin, so how does that help me on the internet
[17:01] But I feel I feel like you could
[17:03] that
[17:05] Incident could have been true for any year post the founding of the state of Ohio
[17:12] I'm sure somebody robbed of 300 bucks worth of some things
[17:16] Yeah, that's true. There are dears. That's a lot of deer. It's a lot of deer
[17:26] but
[17:29] You know, there's a lot of deer out there
[17:33] They just open it up to
[17:35] Hunting season at some point. It's like all you all you can eat
[17:40] For deer
[17:45] Yep