--- title: Why We Can't Buy a Better Missile Defense description: Why money can't buy a better missile defense, Zika vs the Olympics, how capitalism lost millennials and more. canonical: https://time.com/4327722/can-not-buy-better-missile-defense/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-12T16:01:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:00.443Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why We Can't Buy a Better Missile Defense og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4327722/can-not-buy-better-missile-defense/ 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: Why We Can't Buy a Better Missile Defense twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why We Can't Buy a Better Missile Defense by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 12, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 12, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Throwing money at missile defense won’t fix it.**](http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/05/throwing-money-missile-defense-wont-fix-it/128093/) By Stefan Soesanto in Defense One **2\.** [**Most American millennials don’t believe in capitalism. How do we fix that?**](http://time.com/4327419/american-capitalisms-great-crisis/) By Rana Foroohar in Time **3\.** [**Can we 3-D print a made-to-measure wheelchair?**](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the%5Feye/2016/05/05/benjamin%5Fhubert%5Flayer%5Fgo%5F3%5Fd%5Fprinted%5Fwheelchair%5Fhas%5Fcustom%5Fsizing%5Fand%5Fhuman.html) By Kristin Hohenadel in Slate **4\.** [**If we don’t want Zika to explode across the globe, we should move or delay the Olympic games.**](http://harvardpublichealthreview.org/off-the-podium-why-rios-2016-olympic-games-must-not-proceed/) By Amir Attaran in the Harvard Public Health Review **5\.** [**This ultimate piece of wearable tech will change vision, privacy and even medical treatment.**](http://www.computerworld.com/article/3066870/wearables/why-a-smart-contact-lens-is-the-ultimate-wearable.html) By Mike Elgan in Computer World  [_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/4327722/can-not-buy-better-missile-defense/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4327722/can-not-buy-better-missile-defense/"},"headline":"Why We Can't Buy a Better Missile Defense","datePublished":"2016-05-12T16:01:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:00.443Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4327722/can-not-buy-better-missile-defense/","keywords":["Innovation","3D printing","Capitalism","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/4327722/can-not-buy-better-missile-defense/","name":"Why We Can't Buy a Better Missile Defense"}}]}] ```