Originally this was a strategy devised by Otto von Bismark, a Prussian conservative who thought providing concessions to workers might help keep the communists out of Germany. He succeeded.
Over time, it turned out that social benefits can actually be quite effective for other reasons too.
Today, many OECD countries are explicitly social-democratic. Some countries claim to not be socialist at all, but still do have some (possibly more limited) social programs (eg in education and health care).
Why do people keep misusing the definition of socialism. Do workers own the means of production? If not, it's not socialism. Now I'm not a socialist but I'd like the words we use to have meaning so that we all know what we're collectively talking about.
Social benefits and social democracy != socialism, people should just use that term instead.
For so many instances of the word "social", it's difficult to see how we can't just tack -ism at the end and be happy.
A negative income tax is most definitely not UBI. You still have to work to get it, therefore it's not universal. It's a pure wage subsidy program.
UBI keeps the means of production in the hands of those who already hold them.