by Paul Jacob

On the Ides of October, the first baby boomer applied for Social Security retirement. A Maryland teacher, born a second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, will become eligible to receive early retirement benefits next New Year’s Day.

And so begins the next crisis.

When Social Security was set up, its supporters pooh-poohed critics who warned that by not investing the collected funds, the government was setting up a major fiasco. The pooh-poohers were wrong, of course; the skeptics, right.

Now, all those baby boomers whose FICA withholding kept the system afloat for years will begin to drain funds. Soon, the money going to retirees will far exceed money coming in. Hence the crisis.

What to do?

Putting the whole thing on an investment basis is essential. But we still have to pay out generations expecting retirement help whose funds were not invested. Raise FICA taxes? Been there, endured that. Raise the retirement age to, say, 72? Yikes.

To postpone Social Security's inherent insolvency by either a dramatic tax increase or a setting back of the retirement age — or both — would be to admit, quite plainly, the swindle at the heart of the system, the system that politicians devised and politicians exploited and politicians still praise.

And as for a new government health care plan: Fix Social Security first!

Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by the Sam Adams Alliance. Their website can be visited at www.samadamsalliance.org.