A Modest Proposal

In 1729 Jonathan Swift anonymously published "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public", or as it's more succinctly called, "A Modest Proposal." The essay opens with a sympathetic and concerned citizen's persuasive introduction to the issue of the Irish poor. Soon however the speaker divulges his morbid solution: the Irish should raise their children as feed stock for the the wealthy throughout the kingdom. This solution, he continues unflinchingly, would resolve the issues of poverty, overpopulation, and Ireland's unbalanced trade with England. A Modest Proposal is Swift's answer to the fervent debates at the time over social reform, ones which coldly and scientifically outlines plans for the poor.