A Modest Proposal

It doesn’t take long to summarize the short “pamphlet” that is Swift’s Modest Proposal. To remedy the problem of the poverty-stricken, oppressed and uneducated population of Catholics in Ireland, Swift’s projector calmly and rationally proposes that thousands of the children should be killed and eaten. This will help both the overpopulated poor, who can’t afford to care for their children anyway, and the rich, who will get a good meal out …

…Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses….”8) “I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal….”9) “…I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.”10) “I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country….”