Universal Basic Services (UBS) is an alternative case to UBI.
Under UBS, the provision of free public services must go beyond health or education to cover other basic necessities (e.g., housing, care, transport, information, nutrition).
UBS can be more egalitarian with a strong redistributive performance and impact on income inequalities.
UBS can also be more sustainable by decarbonizing the economy in a just way - rather than disproportionally loading the costs on the lower income brackets - and by supporting sustainable consumption corridors.
One thing to keep an eye on as far as services is to make sure they’re used by all classes of people. In the states there’s public housing but it’s seen as inferior (and usually is actually inferior). So only the poor use it, which means it has no powerful defenders. And for most people who already own a home, they would never consider getting rid of it to move into public housing.
One advantage of UBI is that everyone gets it, so everyone will have an incentive to defend it. Think about social security - every so often politicians talk about how we might need to cut, but that would be political suicide because of how many people are invested in getting that payout.
Both.
When I was creating a Star Trek expy, this was how the Federation worked: there were a lot of universal basic services, and one of the governmental departments looked to expanding what services qualified as UBS and looking maintain and improve state offerings so they are competitive to commercial offerings.
UBS would still be prone to corruption and exploitation, but its absolutely a viable bridge towards post-scarcity communism.
As a note, clothes, laundry and hygiene would need to be included in a starter set of UBS. I suppose if UBS and UBI came together, and the program would seek to add common UBI purchases into th3 UBS category.
There are a lot of American cities who would disagree with that regarding public housing.
The initial buildings were fine enough, but they required maintenance and that maintenance would usually be the first thing cut in cases of budget issues.
