why do we mentor?

[Racer26]

For me, I know I mentor because I've seen how significant FIRST's impact on me and my career was, and how its helped me to be successful in young adulthood.

I see bits of myself in some of the kids.

I'm also old enough and wise enough to recognize that humanity is going to have to deal with some extremely huge issues within my lifetime, and we're going to need smart people to pave the way.

The impending retirement of the baby boomers is going to cause significant economic turbulence, in the form of stressing the health care system to its limit, and leaving a massive void at the top of the workforce.

Right now, locally in Toronto area anyway, my generation is suffering from a huge unemployment issue. This is partly caused by the abolishment some 10-15 years ago of the mandatory retirement age of 65. This has caused the people at the top to not exit the workforce until 70 or 75. The workforce, instead of correcting for this, has remained built around a 45 year working life, and thus, the top isnt exiting, so the middle never moves to the top, and the entry level positions aren't being vacated by people moving up.

Soon, though, the declining birth rate is going to catch up with the retiring baby boomers, and there will be this big void where the retired seniors were. Then the remaining workforce is going to have to support the retired boomers. It will stress pension plans, health care systems, and more. The ripples will be huge.