Fulfillment of the Bethe sum rule may be construed as a measure of basis set quality for atomic and molecular properties involving the generalized oscillator strength distribution. It is first shown that, in the case of a complete basis, the Bethe sum rule is fulfilled exactly in the random phase approximation. For an incomplete (computational) basis, some guidelines are developed for constructing higher angular momentum contributions to bases that will optimize the sum of generalized oscillator strengths and thus make the basis well suited for the calculation of stopping cross sections.