Songfacts®:

• This song is about how kids get the short end of the stick because of the actions of the older generation.
  
  Group leader Dave Mustaine sees the song as a call to arms, asking young people to take action, with the alternative being death by apathy. Many Megadeth fans, who tend to be young and working class, are particularly vulnerable to political manipulation - they're the ones most likely to get sent off to war by a government that doesn't care about their well being. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Cory - Calgary, Canada
• "Youthanasia" is the title track to Megadeth's sixth album. The title is a play on the word "euthanasia," which means mercy killing. In this case, the youth are being metaphorically euthanized.
• The Youthanasia album was less thrash than Megadeth's previous output. The band reached new heights with their previous album, Countdown To Extinction in 1992, vindication of sorts for Dave Mustaine, who was fired from Metallica (for drug use!!!) a decade earlier. By the time Youthanasia was released, the group was cohesive musically (they wrote songs together) but struggling to get along - they had very strong personalities that often clashed. Their next albums weren't as successful, but that owes to the decline of metal in general. The band split in 2002 but returned to action in 2004 and even played some shows with Metallica on some "Big Four" concerts.