--- title: We Should Take Public Benefits Out of the Stone Age description: Getting public benefits out of the technology stone age, killing the ISIS second-in-command (again) and more. canonical: https://time.com/4279089/public-benefits-stone-age/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-01T16:01:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:11.005Z article:section: Ideas og:title: We Should Take Public Benefits Out of the Stone Age og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4279089/public-benefits-stone-age/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: We Should Take Public Benefits Out of the Stone Age twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # We Should Take Public Benefits Out of the Stone Age by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 1, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 1, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Let’s take public benefits out of the technology stone age.**](http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/modernizing-how-public-agencies-deliver-work-support-benefits) By Julia B. Isaacs at the Urban Institute **2\.** [**We keep killing the ISIS second-in-command. Does it make a difference?**](http://www.vox.com/2016/3/26/11309708/abu-alaa-al-afri) By Zack Beauchamp in Vox **3\.** [**Big U.S. cities aren’t ready for Zika’s springtime surge.**](http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/29/springtime-in-d-c-means-mosquitoes-and-zika-obama-funding/?preview%5Fid=862736) By Laurie Garrett in Foreign Policy **4\.** [**AirBNB isn’t just for couch-crashing millennials.**](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-31/why-everybody-loves-seniors-on-airbnb) By Eric Newcomer in Bloomberg **5\.** [**Can a dress shirt be racist?**](https://backchannel.com/can-a-dress-shirt-be-racist-6b74244446e9#.62wpdlwjq) By Moises Velasquez-Manoff in Backchannel  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4279089/public-benefits-stone-age/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4279089/public-benefits-stone-age/"},"headline":"We Should Take Public Benefits Out of the Stone Age","datePublished":"2016-04-01T16:01:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:11.005Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4279089/public-benefits-stone-age/","keywords":["Innovation","Airbnb","Racism","ISIS","SNAP","Zika"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4279089/public-benefits-stone-age/","name":"We Should Take Public Benefits Out of the Stone Age"}}]}] ```