It is hard to know why millennials are described as "Generation Me". It is particularly hard to understand for baby boomers, who have been called the selfish generation with some justice, as were their parents, the wartime generation.
The wartime generation were lifelong beneficiaries of the welfare state, largely founded by Social Security Act 1938, and even after the country changed direction in 1984 the wartime generation, by then in or approaching retirement, fought to preserve universal superannuation.
Baby boomers, meanwhile, were raised on family benefits and had largely received a tertiary education before the Government reformed the economy, means-testing family benefits and setting fees that forced students to take out loans.
So millennials, the second generation to carry a personal debt into a more difficult job market than their grandparents entered, can reasonably protest at being labelled self-centred. A survey we look at today finds further challenges for the label.
Youth charity Inspiring Stories asked 13-30-year-olds to rank the issues that cause them most concern and top of the list were the environment and the need to talk about mental health and wellbeing, the subject of an ongoing Herald series on youth suicide.
