ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Silvio Gesell

Silvio Gesell was a man who lived a long time ago in the country of Germany. Silvio had a big idea, which was that if we wanted to make money work better, we had to change the way we thought about it.

You see, money is very important because we use it to buy things that we need and want, like food, toys, and clothes. But sometimes, money doesn't work the way we want it to. For example, it can be very hard to get money if you don't have a job, or if you live in a place where there isn't enough money to go around.

So Silvio came up with a new kind of money that he called "free money." This money would work a little differently than the money we use today.

Regular money is called "fiat money," which means that it's valuable because the government says it is. But free money would be valuable because it would have a time limit on it. You could use it for a certain amount of time, but then you would have to spend it or it would expire.

By doing this, Silvio thought he could make people spend their money more freely and help businesses grow. People would be more likely to spend their money instead of hoarding it, which would help keep the economy moving.

Overall, Silvio Gesell's ideas about free money were pretty radical for his time, but they have had a big impact on the way we think about money today.