Universal Basic Assets
= "a core, basic set of resources that every person is entitled to, from housing and healthcare to education and financial security". Marina Gorbis
URL = http://www.iftf.org/uba
Contextual Quote
“Instead of giving people money to buy housing in broken markets, provide public housing directly. Instead of vouchers for overpriced healthcare, provide healthcare free at point of service. Instead of student loans that inflate tuition, provide free public education. You can’t price-gouge what’s provided publicly at cost.”
- Chevan Nanayakkara [1]
Description
1. Chevan Nanayakkara:
“What Are Universal Basic Assets?
UBA means guaranteeing access to essential resources through public provision:
Housing: Public housing… not segregated poverty concentration, but high-quality, mixed-income housing available to all. Vienna houses 62% of residents in social housing while maintaining one of Europe’s highest living standards. Singapore provides public housing to 80% of citizens. When I lived in White Plains, New York, I saw this model work in America: well-designed, mixed-income developments that integrated residents into the community and provided genuine pathways to opportunity. Germany’s extensive social housing demonstrates this approach at scale.
Healthcare: Single-payer, free at point of service. Nobody can charge you $1,000 for insulin if the public system provides it. Remove healthcare from profit extraction entirely.
Education: Free public education from pre-K through university, including trade schools and technical training. Remove education debt and barriers to advancement.
Transportation: Free or nominal-cost public transit. Remove transportation as a poverty trap.
Utilities: Public broadband, electricity, water at cost or free. Remove utility profiteering from natural monopolies. Food Security: Expanded SNAP, universal school meals, community food programs. Ensure baseline nutrition outside grocery market dynamics.”
(https://chevan.substack.com/p/universal-basic-income-ubi-isnt-the)
2. Institute for the Future:
"To regain balance and enable sustainable livelihoods for large swaths of the population, the Institute for the Future (IFTF) proposes a framework called Universal Basic Assets (UBA), which identifies a fundamental set of resources every person needs access to, from financial security and housing to healthcare and education.
In the UBA framework and manifesto, we focus on three broad classes of assets: Private assets include money, land, and housing. Public assets refer to infrastructure and services like education, health, and public utilities. Lastly, open assets are a growing category of mostly digital assets that are communally created and open to everyone, from Wikipedia and open education resources to scientific knowledge, artificial intelligence tools, and much more.
IFTF’s Universal Basic Assets framework and manifesto do not advocate collectivizing or seizing and distributing resources. Rather, they are a call to action to collaboratively identify the key assets people will need today and in the future in order to lead sustainable livelihoods as individuals, households, and wider communities. UBA offers actionable tools for designing policies and mechanisms for widening access to such resources."
Characteristics
Chevan Nanayakkara:
“Universal Basic Assets:
1. Builds productive capacity while distributing it – Public housing construction employs workers, creates housing stock, reduces homelessness, and removes housing from speculation
2. Potentially anti-inflationary – UBA increases productive capacity (more housing, more healthcare capacity, more education) while meeting demand
3. Stabilizes prices – Public provision of necessities at cost creates a price ceiling in those markets
4. Mobilizes idle resources – Unemployed construction workers building housing, idle factories producing materials for infrastructure
5. Addresses wealth inequality, not just income – UBA distributes productive assets, not just cash flows.”
Universal Basic Assets actually expands choice:
• More career freedom – Take a job you love that doesn’t pay well, because survival is guaranteed
• More geographic freedom – Move for opportunities without worrying about losing healthcare or finding affordable housing
• More entrepreneurial freedom – Start that business without risking your family’s survival. As I argue in “Opportunity Economics,” economic security isn’t the enemy of opportunity… it’s the foundation that makes real opportunity possible.
• More educational freedom – Study what interests you, not just what maximizes income for debt repayment
• More relationship freedom – Leave bad relationships without facing homelessness
• More life freedom – Choose a simple, subsistence-level existence without stigma if that’s what brings you meaning and contentment And here’s the important part: Public provision doesn’t eliminate private markets. You can still buy private housing if you want.
Private insurance if you prefer. Private schools if you choose. Public provision creates a floor, not a ceiling. Vienna has excellent public housing and people still buy private homes. Britain has NHS and people still buy private insurance. The difference is you’re not coerced by desperation into whatever exploitative arrangement rentiers offer.”
(https://chevan.substack.com/p/universal-basic-income-ubi-isnt-the)
Examples
Successful Public Housing Provision as UBA
Chevan Nanayakkara:
“Vienna’s social housing is so attractive that middle-class and even wealthy residents choose it. High-quality architecture, excellent maintenance, integrated amenities, mixed-income developments. It’s not “housing for the poor,” it’s community housing available to all.
Singapore’s HDB flats house 80% of the population in well-maintained, integrated developments with parks, markets, and community centers. Mixed-income by design. Pride of ownership through long-term leases. Maintenance funded from rents set at cost-recovery levels.
Germany’s social housing demonstrates this at scale across hundreds of cities. Quality construction, ongoing maintenance, integrated into neighborhoods, available across income levels with sliding rents.
White Plains, New York showed me this model can work in America. The mixed-income developments I saw there integrated residents into the broader community, provided quality housing without stigma, and created genuine opportunities for people to build networks and pursue advancement if they chose.
The lesson: Public provision doesn’t have to fail and become slums and overused. That’s an implementation choice. When we design UBA properly, high quality, mixed-income, integrated, well-maintained housing works.”
(https://chevan.substack.com/p/universal-basic-income-ubi-isnt-the)
Discussion
UBI and UBA compared
Chevan Nanayakkara:
“Universal Basic Income asks: “How much cash do people need to survive?”
Universal Basic Assets asks: “What do people need to thrive, and how do we provide it?”
The difference isn’t semantic. The difference is structural.
• UBI treats poverty as a cash shortage. UBA treats it as lack of access to essential resources. • UBI tries to patch a broken system. UBA rebuilds it. • UBI gives people money to participate in extractive markets. UBA removes necessities from extractive markets entirely. The evidence is clear: • Financially, both are affordable, money isn’t the constraint • Economically, UBI is inflationary (increases demand without capacity); UBA can be anti-inflationary (builds capacity while meeting demand) • Empirically, UBI gets captured by rent-seekers; UBA escapes capture through public provision • Socially, UBI maintains inequality with bigger numbers; UBA addresses wealth distribution directly • Practically, UBI creates coercion with higher prices; UBA creates real freedom
As I explore in “Beyond Capitalism vs. Socialism,” the choice isn’t about capitalism versus socialism, markets versus government, or individual versus collective. These are false binaries that constrain our imagination.
The real choice is how we use our understanding of monetary systems to build institutions that serve a pluralistic, diverse society where anyone can choose quiet subsistence without stigma while their neighbor pursues wealth-building, personal power, prestige- whatever their motivation is for being in the markets… both lifestyles have dignity, security, and genuine opportunity.
Markets excel at many things. But rationing human survival and dignity by ability to pay isn’t one of them. Some things are too important to leave to profit motives.
Universal Basic Assets provides the framework for this pluralistic vision:
• Those who can’t work get dignified subsistence • Those who won’t work in traditional markets get basic security • Those in geographies lacking private sector strength get genuine opportunities • Those pursuing education, care work, art, community service, or entrepreneurship get real support • Those competing in markets for wealth-building get fair conditions and genuine choice • Everyone gets stakeholder status, democratic participation, and pathways to contribute
This isn’t charity or temporary assistance. It’s the foundation for a society that works for everyone using our abundant productive capacity to ensure everyone has what they need to live with dignity, while preserving and enhancing freedom for those who want to compete and build.
We have the resources. We have the capacity. We have the knowledge.
What we need, as I discuss in “Opportunity Economics,” is the political will to choose solidarity over extraction, long-term flourishing over short-term profit, and human dignity over market fundamentalism.”
(https://chevan.substack.com/p/universal-basic-income-ubi-isnt-the)
More information
- Universal Basic Assets: A manifesto for a more equitable future [2]