A Modest Proposal is an essay by Jonathan Swift of the 18th century. It is a satirical essay that talks about an argument that says infant children should be sold for their meat. Ireland needs a simple solution to help its poor population. The streets of Ireland are full of beggars, and they are mostly women beggars with children that struggle to find something to eat. The poor parents in Ireland spend all their time trying to find something to feed their large families. Even with all the struggle of finding food, these children mostly become thieves when they grow up. As a result to this poverty that those families are facing, Swift suggests that the parents should try to fatten up their children and then sell them to the rich English landowners.
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He gives statistical support for his proposal about the number of children that should be sold, the projected eating patterns of the consumers, and the children’s weight and price along with specific data about them. Moreover, he argues that nearly 120.000 out of 1.5 million people in the country are children who have no use to the society. The mother would receive sum of three pounds if she would sell her child at the age of twelve. The best solution that the author states is that in the 120.000 children we should keep 20.000 of them and let the rest 100.000 be sold for meat. He thinks this would also solve the issues of unemployment and overpopulation in Ireland. With selling her children, the beggar woman would profit greatly. The author calculates that in the first year, it will only cost the parents of the poor two shillings to look after their children. Later on, a merchant would buy a child for ten shillings at least. That way he or she would be leaving the beggar parent with eight shillings. The money that affords the beggar woman would soon make her fit to join
He gives statistical support for his proposal about the number of children that should be sold, the projected eating patterns of the consumers, and the children’s weight and price along with specific data about them. Moreover, he argues that nearly 120.000 out of 1.5 million people in the country are children who have no use to the society. The mother would receive sum of three pounds if she would sell her child at the age of twelve. The best solution that the author states is that in the 120.000 children we should keep 20.000 of them and let the rest 100.000 be sold for meat. He thinks this would also solve the issues of unemployment and overpopulation in Ireland. With selling her children, the beggar woman would profit greatly. The author calculates that in the first year, it will only cost the parents of the poor two shillings to look after their children. Later on, a merchant would buy a child for ten shillings at least. That way he or she would be leaving the beggar parent with eight shillings. The money that affords the beggar woman would soon make her fit to join