With all the politicos in Washington nattering about how one Florida congressman treated a handful of youths, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has done the country a favor by reminding everyone that “protecting the children” means more than merely exposing tawdry sex scandals. The title of Mr. Bernanke’s remarks to the Washington Economic Club yesterday says it all: “The Coming Demographic Transition: Will We Treat Future Generations Fairly?” Mr. Bernanke noted that America’s graying population is going to strain the Social Security and Medicare programs, as fewer working-age taxpayers struggle to support a rapidly growing number of retirees.

That fact isn’t new, and indeed has motivated Republican attempts to reform both entitlements for years. Yet Mr. Bernanke’s way of framing the issue as a question of fundamental fairness is refreshing. In recent years, the debate over Social Security reform has gotten bogged down by wonkish talk about trust funds, personal accounts, ownership, and heritability. Politicians have debated precisely when Social Security will run out of cash and whether benefit cuts or tax increases would be the best way to pay for overruns. Reformers have offered dark visions of hard budget choices future Congresses will have to make between Social Security and defense, for example. The Fed chairman pointed up how this debate, technocratic though it seems, is really about the children.

Mr. Bernanke steered clear of offering recommendations on how to design entitlement reform, although he said such reform “should be a priority.” Instead he painted in broad strokes, suggesting that any reform should reduce dependence on deficit spending, should remove disincentives for seniors to work part-time after retirement or to work and save longer before retiring, and should come sooner rather than later. Although he didn’t say so, Social Security reformed based on personal accounts would fulfill his criteria.

Details aside, doing nothing will saddle future generations with crushing government deficits and oppressive taxes. “A failure on our part to prepare for demographic change,” Mr. Bernanke concluded, “will have substantial adverse effects on the economic welfare of our children and grandchildren and on the long-run productive potential of the U.S. economy.”The day of reckoning is coming more slowly in America than in some other Western countries, but it is coming. Two generations from now, people may have forgotten the details of today’s congressional child-cybersex scandal. They will be living with the results of today’s entitlement reform or lack thereof. We would only add that if one is talking about protecting future generations, sound money — Mr. Bernanke’s main responsibility — is right up there with entitlement reform.