# bang for your buck

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bang-for-your-buck/55491>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 22, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bang-for-your-buck/55491 "2001-02-22T17:39:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![daisy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@daisy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daisy)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bang-for-your-buck/55491/1 "2001-02-22T17:39:22Z")

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From where does the phrase “more bang for you buck” come?

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**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2001, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bang-for-your-buck/55491/2 "2001-02-22T21:26:37Z")

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My WAG is that it is a gunpowder reference. The cheaper gunpowder is, the more you get for a dollar. Hence, “more bang for your buck.”

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2001, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bang-for-your-buck/55491/3 "2001-02-22T23:18:04Z")

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I remember my political science professor talking about a U.S. general or senator who said early in the Cold War that nuclear weapons give “more bang for the buck” than conventional weapons. I assumed it was this use that popularized the phrase. Now that I think about it, I realize the phrase could be much older than the atomic age.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2001, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bang-for-your-buck/55491/4 "2001-02-22T23:50:47Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> This phrase originates in Cold War deliberations concerning funding new weapons. For example, the US Air Force habitually claimed that ballistic missiles such as ICBM’s could do more damage to an enemy country for a given expenditure than a Navy aircraft carrier could.  
> Thus, they claimed, missiles give more “bang for the buck” than ships.  
> source: [http://members.aol.com/MorelandC/HaveOriginsData.htm](http://members.aol.com/MorelandC/HaveOriginsData.htm)

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bang-for-your-buck/55491/5 "2001-02-23T01:21:25Z")

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To expand upon **bibliophage’s** link–

It specifically is recounted by William Safire in his _New Language of Politics_ 1968, and he attributes it to Defense Secretary Charles Wilson in 1954 dubbing John Foster Dulles’ principle of massive retaliation as “a bigger bang for a buck.” At least, that’s the first incidence in print.