A Modest Proposal

Different nations have experienced varying levels of economic difficulties, as result some taking the form of famines. During the time of the publication of “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick” by Jonathan Swift, Ireland was going through extremely difficult times both economically and socially. Swift, an Anglo-Irish satirist and Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral of Dublin, was born into wealth in the form of land along with having a source of steady income while the rest of his country struggled with the harsh famines taking place (Bio). He first published his proposal in 1729 as a satirical way of exposing the pain of economic troubles to grain a reaction, the proposal evoked an enormous reaction from the general public (Artbin). Swift produces a solution that promises to effectively put an end to the economic troubles in the nation, but at the cost of morals and ethics, and providing insight to the true cost of objectively achieving a goal based on money with no regard to emotion. Swift’s ironic usage of a proposal argument, persona attempting to appeal logically, emotionally, and credible, …show more content…
By stating that, “a Child, just dropt from its Dam, may be supported by her Milk, … at most not above the Value of two Shillings”, showing that to start their “investment” it will have a low entrance bid but will encourage a high yield after one year (Swift 1). Due to children that are raised to six or older are not worth large amounts of money on the Exchange, because of not being of laboring age results in low net worth. This provides for an extremely viable option for a source of income to the struggling. Economically, the proposal will be able to satisfy the needs of the