Welcome to the biggest beer drinking day of the year!
According to the Beer Institute, Thomas Jefferson was said to have composed the first draft of the Declaration of Independence over a cold one at the Indian Queen tavern in Philadelphia.
Now we pick up over 68 million cases of beer in preparation for this glorious day, totaling over $1 BILLION dollars!
If that doesn’t get any good financial discussions going I don’t know what will ;)
Oh wait, yes I do – here are even more facts to encourage some good $$$ talkin’ today!
$6,000,000,000 will be spent on food for the holiday.
$203,000,000 on condiments alone.
We’ll also spend $111,000,000 on popsicles and charcoal (such a weird pairing of facts, haha…).
Another $600,000,000 on fireworks (!!), in which 690 people will go to the emergency room and 7 will die from firework-related incidents (be careful out there, friends!).
Speaking of death, three of our founding fathers passed on the 4th! Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe. And both Jefferson and Adams on the exact same day, which happened to be the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (crazy).
We’ll also eat over 700,000,000 pounds of chicken today, 190,000,000 pounds of beef, and 150,000,000 hotdogs. (The all-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest record btw is 69 70 dogs in 10 minutes, set by Joey Chestnut on July 4th, 2013 July 4th, 2016)
And we’ll spend over $3,500,000 on American flags as well. Which are imported by, wait for it… China.
Some other random facts:
More than one copy of the Declaration of Independence exists. They’re called “Dunlap broadsides,” and of the hundreds originally printed only 26 are known to exist (3 of which are in private hands).
“Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776.” is hand written on the back of the Declaration! And done so upside down and backwards…
It spent World War II in Fort Knox.
There were 2,500,000 U.S. residents in July of 1776. Now there are 323,000,000.
41,900,000 Americans will travel 50+ miles from home this weekend and 3,210,000 by plane.
J. Money is the sexiest blogger around… (wait, what?)
And lastly, the average cost of a DUI is $10,000.
So be safe out there everyone!
Life is good, and it’s all possible through freedom!
*****
PS: How will you be celebrating today?
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Wow! It’s a huge figure. Although its not a new thing because this is what we Americans are known for, in the whole world. It is the greatest day of celebration for us and we are extremely proud. Happy Independence Day to all !!
It would be interesting to keep track of all these costs and compare them in 2026 which will be a fairly big birthday for the US.
Yeah! And we’re still open for business this many years later :)
Surprising to think there were only $2.5 million residents back then. Also, for some reason I always try to watch the hot dog eating contest, I guess I just like the tradition of it.
YIKES astonishing figures. I’ve not drank a beer since I was a teenager. Never acquired a taste for it. No celebration here. We’re in the midst of moving & today we’re sorting thru stuff for a garage sale this Sat. Sold our house & look forward to a 6 month rental lease. YIPPEE no home maintenance (except mowing). Plan on buying new construction next year. Happy 4th of July! Eat & drink something good for me today. While y’all are sipping cocktails poolside, think of poor lil ole me sweating head to toe packing to move & pricing garage sale junk…I mean, garage sale treasures!!!! Have fun & stay cool!
Awwww, well if it makes you feel better we’re knee-deep in boxes over here too w/ a move! Except no yard sale for us – on a tight timeline :(
I hate to be that guy, but I just saw a news story yesterday morning that said it was Jefferson and Adams (not Monroe) that died on July 4th 1826. The funny part about the story was that Adams hated the 4th because he thought the day that should be celebrated was the 2nd because that was the day that we voted to approve the constitution! Have a great 4th!
YES! Good catch! Guess I shouldn’t have started drinking so early ;)
I would up those ER visits in our area this year! First time it is legal to buy fireworks here and it is going to be 90 and sunny – perfect combination for sun, beer, and blowing things up! (Let’s hope it isn’t too many body parts!) Worried about fires too though – no rain in over a month… Happy 4th everyone!
Awesome it’s going to be sunny over there! Wet and thunderstormy here :(
It is amazing to me how much we spend on celebrating Independence Day. We plan to stay home most of the day and avoid the heat, humidity and pollen. At 7 we will head to my sister’s house to do poppers, sparklers and smoke bomb type things we bought at the fireworks stand. We let the kids each pick out a small kit and spentertainment $39. We will have a veggie tray, cheesecake brownies and fruit pizza to snack on. I even bought some 7.5 Oz soda cans for the kids to drink. They are excited to be able to drink soda at home. Altogether we spent $50 more than we normally do for a day.
Sounds like a beautiful evening to me :)
Wow! Some pretty impressive facts! I’m surprised at the amount of chicken consumed vs beef and dogs.
Celebrating today? Probably ride the “Tricycle” some, hang with the family, sausages, and stuff later.
Happy 4th Everybody!
Happy 4th! I believe Joey Chestnut just ate 72 dogs last week at another content. The Nathan’s contents is on today at noon. I’ll tune in for the gluttony.
How is that even possible?? Haha…
I have some family in town and, if it doesn’t rain, we’ll watch some fireworks at the local school. If it rains, we’ll keep on playing board games. Our BBQ was this weekend. Cost to me was creating a chocolate cheesecake.
Happy 4th everyone! I love the stats, J. Surprised that more chicken than beef is consumed; Americans are more frugal than I thought.
Here’s an interesting conversation topic: many states lose out on tax dollars from the sale of fireworks due to outdated bans.
Hah! Interesting indeed.
Love it! Starting it off with beer facts…wait, are you part Canadian?
I wish all my American friends as good or better of a time as we did celebrating Canada Day on Friday. What a blast! So nice to be sharing a long weekend with you all this year!
Happy 4th of July everyone!
Here’s Robin Williams as the American Flag (1982). Enjoy!
Oh wow that was good! Never seen that before – had a smile the whole time :)
In RI at my in-laws and just reading on the front page of the paper that RI has an early copy of the Declaration of Independance that was found in 1987 and that still shows the creases from being delivered by courier. The public is allowed to view it for a whole hour and a half today – ha! Also while reading the paper, feeling incredulous about the unbelievable slaughter and human suffering in this world. We hit humanity’s jackpot being born here. It’s easy not to always feel patriotic when we see how things are far from perfect here. But we know what it feels like to be safe, for our children to be safe. That is a feeling millions upon millions of mothers and fathers have never known and possibly never will.
Yes!! Very fortunate indeed – love the spirit today too and wish it would carry over into other days as well :(
(And pretty amazing about that early copy of the Declaration too! Just read your link to it from below – wow!)
I wonder who the private citizens are that have a copy of the Declaration of Independence? That would be sooo cool!!
Happy 4th of July!!
Well it wasn’t actually in private hands… Official copies were made and sent throughout the colonies. This one apparently is one of the few that was retained in the town it was sent to — it was found in an office behind a filing cabinet, or something silly to that effect… Love this kind of stuff! https://shar.es/1l5yGw
Holy cats! Had no idea we spent that much on the 4th (probably cause I’m not contributing to the cost much). We celebrated last night around the firepit, so we are working on our DIY projects today! Happy 4th!
Sounds awesome :)
So according to your first point, there is a chance that I could write something works changing while drinking…This is all he encouragement I need to drink while writing.
BBQ ribs, corn, mustard greens, beans, and a microbrew for me! I love Independence Day. :)
Enjoy the time off! I can’t write while drinking, it will be all gibberish…
I’ll down one in your honor :)
Great list of facts! I had no idea we spend 1/3 of what we spend on fireworks on condiments! That’s an impressive amount of ketchup.
Update: The all-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest record is now 70 dogs, set by Joey Chestnut on July 4th, 2016.
Oooooh nothing like one-upping yourself!
Adam’s last words were, “Jefferson lives.” Except like you said, he had passed away earlier that day!
You know my penchant for history… Love this post! Didn’t know the Declaration was started over a beer. May explain the virtual plagiarism from John Locke?
Yeah! Those crazy frenemies…
$203 Million on condiments. It makes me wonder how many gallons of ketchup that translates into. Enough to fill a small lake? Can you imagine, if we didn’t eat condiments next year, we could go water skiing in ketchup next year. Heinz would love it.
And how many people do you think are nursing a hangover today instead of going to work. I want to see the study that shows how much the economy looses due to a decreased workforce on July 5th.
Happy Birthday America
Hahah YES – me too!!!
On both the ketchup skiing and the hangover loss! :)
My three year old found a penny on the ground yesterday and yelled “It’s my lucky day!” to the world. I was so proud…and then I thought of you.
As you should. Us penny lovers need to stick together :)
I wonder what the national debt is back in those days hehe. I didn’t know about those founding fathers who died on the fourth, very interesting.
I don’t know, but I do know many of the founding fathers died with a lot of personal debt on their hands! Especially Thomas Jefferson – he had a TON.
I had to look up how much “a ton” of debt was. Here’s what I found at monticello.org:
“Jefferson’s debts at his death amounted to $107,000. Converting this figure into a modern estimate is an inexact process at best, but it would probably be somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000.”
Wow! Among other things, “Jefferson lived perpetually beyond his means, spending large amounts of money on building projects, furnishings, wine, etc.”
Jefferson needed some wisdom from J. Money! He did know how to write a good Declaration of Independence, though:)
Happy belated 4th of July!
Haha, indeed sir, indeed…
I want to see the study on the sexiness of personal finance bloggers.
I bet we could get some good sponsors for that ;)
Adding to the “fun trivia about Independence Day” file in the cabinet. Thanks J Money!
My seven year old is basically an anomaly. He wanted to spend his time selling bottled water to the parade goers, instead of watching the parade. I obliged and accompanied him. He made $20 in about 45 minutes! Not bad for a 7 year old! Ha!
Hell yeah!! You’ve got a nice little entrepreneur on your hands!
Now the real question is – has he already spent it? :)
Some people behind our vacation house on the beach last night recreated star wars space battles by shooting off 5 rockets a second. I love the South
Hahaha..
Wow! These are so random, but yet hilarious, lol. I can’t believe that this money is spent on just the 4th..and the flag thing…yeah that’s totally messed up. It would kinda make sense to produce our own flags, you know? Anyway, hope you had a great 4th!
I just read a story about a firework related death in Maine. A young guy tried to launch a firework off of his head…and the firework was put into the tube backwards. :0
Makes me so sad for people…