Pastabos

Pastabos is a fictional unit of social credit used in speculative fiction and world-building contexts to quantify an individual's or group's contribution to a community. In settings where it appears, pastabos function as a non-monetary currency that governs access to resources, services, and governance rights based on cooperative labor, expertise, and trust rather than market price.

Origin and terminology: The term pastabo is used across different fictional worlds with varying etymologies. In many works it is described as rooted in a language of mutual aid, while in others it is treated as a historic label for a guild’s ledger of service credits. The plural pastabos denotes the units accumulated by an actor or group.

Economics and mechanics: Pastabos are earned by participating in communal projects, mentoring, caregiving, teaching, or restoring public goods after crises. They are tracked in a ledger and can be exchanged for goods, services, or influence in collective decisions. Redemption often requires verification by a trusted steward, and systems may impose caps, expiration, or depreciation to reflect time and risk. Some settings allow conversion between pastabos and other currencies at fixed rates; others restrict any external conversion.

Social and literary role: Pastabos are a narrative tool to explore reciprocity, power, and resilience. They can incentivize cooperation but may also enable social coercion or inequity if rules are opaque or capturable by elites. Writers customize rules to illustrate different governance models, from transparent deliberative systems to opaque patronage networks.

See also: social currency, gift economy, time banking, reputational economy.