A Modest Proposal begins by lamenting the sad fate of the poverty-stricken Irish who have to spend all their

time looking
for food to stuff in their kids' mouths. Luckily, the author has come up with an excellent way to put the brats to good use:
raise them as food for wealthy citizens. Really, it all makes perfect sense. If you aren't entirely convinced right away, he
proceeds to spell out the benefits.
It's all good, because only 100,000 Irish children out of the population will be set aside for dinner. If you're not sure how
to cook a child, don't worry. A friend of the author passes on some very helpful suggestions regarding stewing, roasting,
baking, and boiling methods. Even better, the author calculates exactly how much a child should weigh to serve the
maximum number of guests.
Best of all, raising children for food will give the Irish economy a substantial boost. These kids are delicacies, after all, and
delicacies don't come cheaply. Not only can parents make a tidy profit on their youngsters, but the culinary experience
will make Ireland a hot spot for tourists.
The author insists that the only objection anyone could possibly have to this plan is that fewer people will occupy Ireland.
But see, reducing the population makes it easier for the great and noble England to deal with their unruly subjects. If you
have any residual doubts that the plan won't work, he argues, ask the parents whether they'd be happier with a whiny
kid or a couple dollars in their pockets. It's a no-brainer.
And just so you know that the author isn't biased, take this into account: he can't possibly profit from the brilliant scheme,
given that his kids are too old and tough to fetch much money.

The full title of Swift's pamphlet is "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen

to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick." The tract is an ironically conceived

attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method" for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful

members of the Commonwealth." Across the country poor children, predominantly Catholics, are living in squalor

because their families are too poor to keep them fed and clothed.

The author argues, by hard-edged economic reasoning as well as from a self-righteous moral stance, for a way to turn

this problem into its own solution. His proposal, in effect, is to fatten up these undernourished children and feed them to

Ireland's rich land-owners. Children of the poor could be sold into a meat market at the age of one, he argues, thus

combating overpopulation and unemployment, sparing families the expense of child-bearing while providing them with

a little extra income, improving the culinary experience of the wealthy, and contributing to the overall economic well-

being of the nation.

The author offers statistical support for his assertions and gives specific data about the number of children to be sold,

their weight and price, and the projected consumption patterns. He suggests some recipes for preparing this delicious

new meat, and he feels sure that innovative cooks will be quick to generate more. He also anticipates that the practice of

selling and eating children will have positive effects on family morality: husbands will treat their wives with more respect,

and parents will value their children in ways hitherto unknown. His conclusion is that the implementation of this project
will do more to solve Ireland's complex social, political, and economic problems than any other measure that has been

proposed.

A Modest Proposal
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,[1] commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written
and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. The essay suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their
economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocked
heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general. The primary target of Swift's
satire was the rationalism of modern economics, and the growth of rationalistic modes of thinking in modern life at the
expense of more traditional human values.
In English writing, the phrase "a modest proposal" is now conventionally an allusion to this style of straight-faced satire.

Synopsis[edit]
This essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language.
Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in
Ireland, so that the reader is unprepared for the surprise of Swift's solution when he states: "A young healthy child well
nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled;
and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout."[1]
Swift goes to great lengths to support his argument, including a list of possible preparation styles for the children, and
calculations showing the financial benefits of his suggestion. He uses methods of argument throughout his essay which
lampoon the then-influential William Petty and the social engineering popular among followers of Francis Bacon. These
lampoons include appealing to the authority of "a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London" and "the
famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa" (who had already confessed to not being from Formosa in 1706).
In the tradition of Roman satire, Swift introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting by paralipsis:
Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither
clothes, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials
and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our
women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ
even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer
like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to
sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their
tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be
taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and
the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited
to it.
Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope,
that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.

Population solutions[edit]
George Wittkowsky argued that Swift’s main target in A Modest Proposal was not the conditions in Ireland, but rather the
can-do spirit of the times that led people to devise a number of illogical schemes that would purportedly solve social and
economic ills.[2] Swift was especially attacking projects that tried to fix population and labour issues with a simple cure-all
solution.[3] A memorable example of these sorts of schemes "involved the idea of running the poor through a joint-stock
company".[3] In response, Swift's Modest Proposal was "a burlesque of projects concerning the poor"[4] that were in vogue
during the early 18th century.
A Modest Proposal also targets the calculating way people perceived the poor in designing their projects. The pamphlet
targets reformers who "regard people as commodities".[5] In the piece, Swift adopts the "technique of a political
arithmetician"[6] to show the utter ridiculousness of trying to prove any proposal with dispassionate statistics.
Critics differ about Swift's intentions in using this faux-mathematical philosophy. Edmund Wilson argues that statistically
"the logic of the 'Modest proposal' can be compared with defence of crime (arrogated to Marx) in which he argues that
crime takes care of the superfluous population".[6] Wittkowsky counters that Swift's satiric use of statistical analysis is an
effort to enhance his satire that "springs from a spirit of bitter mockery, not from the delight in calculations for their own
sake".[7]

Rhetoric[edit]
Charles K. Smith argues that Swift's rhetorical style persuades the reader to detest the speaker and pity the Irish. Swift's
specific strategy is twofold, using a "trap"[8] to create sympathy for the Irish and a dislike of the narrator who, in the span
of one sentence, "details vividly and with rhetorical emphasis the grinding poverty" but feels emotion solely for members
of his own class.[9] Swift's use of gripping details of poverty and his narrator's cool approach towards them create "two
opposing points of view" that "alienate the reader, perhaps unconsciously, from a narrator who can view with
'melancholy' detachment a subject that Swift has directed us, rhetorically, to see in a much less detached way."[9]
Swift has his proposer further degrade the Irish by using language ordinarily reserved for animals. Lewis argues that the
speaker uses "the vocabulary of animal husbandry"[10] to describe the Irish. Once the children have been commodified,
Swift's rhetoric can easily turn "people into animals, then meat, and from meat, logically, into tonnage worth a price per
pound".[10]
Swift uses the proposer's serious tone to highlight the absurdity of his proposal. In making his argument, the speaker uses
the conventional, textbook-approved order of argument from Swift's time (which was derived from the Latin
rhetorician Quintilian).[11] The contrast between the "careful control against the almost inconceivable perversion of his
scheme" and "the ridiculousness of the proposal" create a situation in which the reader has "to consider just what
perverted values and assumptions would allow such a diligent, thoughtful, and conventional man to propose so perverse
a plan".[11]

Influences[edit]
Scholars have speculated about which earlier works Swift may have had in mind when he wrote A Modest Proposal.
Tertullian's Apology[edit]
James Johnson argued that A Modest Proposal was largely influenced and inspired by Tertullian's Apology: a satirical
attack against early Roman persecution of Christianity. James William Johnson believes that Swift saw major similarities
between the two situations.[12] Johnson notes Swift's obvious affinity for Tertullian and the bold stylistic and structural
similarities between the works A Modest Proposal and Apology.[13] In structure, Johnson points out the same central
theme, that of cannibalism and the eating of babies as well as the same final argument, that "human depravity is such
that men will attempt to justify their own cruelty by accusing their victims of being lower than human". [12] Stylistically,
Swift and Tertullian share the same command of sarcasm and language.[12] In agreement with Johnson, Donald C. Baker
points out the similarity between both authors' tones and use of irony. Baker notes the uncanny way that both authors
imply an ironic "justification by ownership" over the subject of sacrificing children—Tertullian while attacking pagan
parents, and Swift while attacking the English mistreatment of the Irish poor.[14]
Defoe's The Generous Projector[edit]
It has also been argued that A Modest Proposal was, at least in part, a response to the 1728 essay The Generous Projector
or, A Friendly Proposal to Prevent Murder and Other Enormous Abuses, By Erecting an Hospital for Foundlings and Bastard
Children by Swift's rival Daniel Defoe.[15]
Mandeville's Modest Defence of Publick Stews[edit]
Bernard Mandeville's Modest Defence of Publick Stews asked to introduce public and state controlled bordellos. The 1726
paper acknowledges women's interests and – while not being a complete satirical text – has also been discussed as an
inspiration for Jonathan Swift's title.[16][17] Mandeville had by 1705 already become famous for the Fable of The Bees and
deliberations on private vices and public benefits.
John Locke's First Treatise of Government[edit]
Locke commented: "Be it then as Sir Robert says, that Anciently, it was usual for Men to sell and Castrate their Children.
Let it be, that they exposed them; Add to it, if you please, for this is still greater Power, that they begat them for their
Tables to fat and eat them: If this proves a right to do so, we may, by the same Argument, justifie Adultery, Incest and
Sodomy, for there are examples of these too, both Ancient and Modern; Sins, which I suppose, have the Principle
Aggravation from this, that they cross the main intention of Nature, which willeth the increase of Mankind, and the
continuation of the Species in the highest perfection, and the distinction of Families, with the Security of the Marriage
Bed, as necessary thereunto". (First Treatise, sec. 59).

Economic themes[edit]
Robert Phiddian's article "Have you eaten yet? The Reader in A Modest Proposal" focuses on two aspects of A Modest
Proposal: the voice of Swift and the voice of the Proposer. Phiddian stresses that a reader of the pamphlet must learn to
distinguish between the satirical voice of Jonathan Swift and the apparent economic projections of the Proposer. He
reminds readers that "there is a gap between the narrator's meaning and the text's, and that a moral-political argument
is being carried out by means of parody".[18]
While Swift's proposal is obviously not a serious economic proposal, George Wittkowsky, author of "Swift's Modest
Proposal: The Biography of an Early Georgian Pamphlet", argues that to understand the piece fully it is important to
understand the economics of Swift’s time. Wittowsky argues that not enough critics have taken the time to focus directly
on the mercantilism and theories of labour in 18th century England. "[I]f one regards the Modest Proposal simply as a
criticism of condition, about all one can say is that conditions were bad and that Swift's irony brilliantly underscored this
fact".[19]
"People are the riches of a nation"[edit]
At the start of a new industrial age in the 18th century, it was believed that "people are the riches of the nation", and
there was a general faith in an economy that paid its workers low wages because high wages meant workers would work
less.[20] Furthermore, "in the mercantilist view no child was too young to go into industry". In those times, the "somewhat
more humane attitudes of an earlier day had all but disappeared and the laborer had come to be regarded as a
commodity".[18]
Landa composed a conducive analysis when he noted that it would have been healthier for the Irish economy to more
appropriately utilize their human assets by giving the people an opportunity to “become a source of wealth to the nation”
or else they “must turn to begging and thievery” [21]. This opportunity may have included giving the farmers more coin to
work for, diversifying their professions, or even consider enslaving their people to lower coin usage and build up financial
stock in Ireland. Landa wrote that, "Swift is maintaining that the maxim—people are the riches of a nation—applies to
Ireland only if Ireland is permitted slavery or cannibalism" [22]
Louis A. Landa presents Swift's A Modest Proposal as a critique of the popular and unjustified maxim of mercantilism in
the 18th century that "people are the riches of a nation".[21] Swift presents the dire state of Ireland and shows that mere
population itself, in Ireland's case, did not always mean greater wealth and economy.[22] The uncontrolled maxim fails to
take into account that a person who does not produce in an economic or political way makes a country poorer, not
richer.[22] Swift also recognises the implications of this fact in making mercantilist philosophy a paradox: the wealth of a
country is based on the poverty of the majority of its citizens.[22]Swift however, Landa argues, is not merely criticising
economic maxims but also addressing the fact that England was denying Irish citizens their natural rights and
dehumanising them by viewing them as a mere commodity.[22]

The Public's Reaction[edit]

Swift's writings created a backlash within the community after its publication. The work was aimed at the aristocracy, and
they responded in turn. Several members of society wrote to Swift regarding the work. Lord Bathurst's letter intimated
that he certainly understood the message, and interpreted it as a work of comedy:
February 12, 1729-30:
"I did immediately propose it to Lady Bathurst, as your advice, particularly for her last boy, which was born the plumpest,
finest thing, that could be seen; but she fell in a passion, and bid me send you word, that she would not follow your
direction, but that she would breed him up to be a parson, and he should live upon the fat of the land; or a lawyer, and
then, instead of being eat himself, he should devour others. You know women in passion never mind what they say; but,
as she is a very reasonable woman, I have almost brought her over now to your opinion; and having convinced her, that
as matters stood, we could not possibly maintain all the nine, she does begin to think it reasonable the youngest should
raise fortunes for the eldest: and upon that foot a man may perforin family duty with more courage and zeal; for, if he
should happen to get twins, the selling of one might provide for the other. Or if, by any accident, while his wife lies in with
one child, he should get a second upon the body of another woman, he might dispose of the fattest of the two, and that
would help to breed up the other.
The more I think upon this scheme, the more reasonable it appears to me; and it ought by no means to be confined to
Ireland; for, in all probability, we shall, in a very little time, be altogether as poor here as you are there. I believe, indeed,
we shall carry it farther, and not confine our luxury only to the eating of children; for I happened to peep the other day
into a large assembly [Parliament] not far from Westminster-hall, and I found them roasting a great fat fellow, [Walpole
again] For my own part, I had not the least inclination to a slice of him; but, if I guessed right, four or five of the company
had a devilish mind to be at him. Well, adieu, you begin now to wish I had ended, when I might have done it so
conveniently".[23]

Modern usage[edit]
A Modest Proposal is included in many literature courses as an example of early modern western satire. It also serves as
an exceptional introduction to the concept and use of argumentative language, lending itself well to secondary and post-
secondary essay courses. Outside of the realm of English studies, A Modest Proposal is included in many comparative and
global literature and history courses, as well as those of numerous other disciplines in the arts, humanities, and even the
social sciences.
The essay's approach has been copied many times. In his book A Modest Proposal (1984), the evangelical author Frank
Schaeffer emulated Swift's work in a social conservative polemic against abortion and euthanasia, imagining a
future dystopia that advocates recycling of aborted embryos, fetuses, and some disabled infants with compound
intellectual, physical and physiological difficulties. (Such Baby Doe Rules cases were then a major concern of the US pro-
life movement of the early 1980s, which viewed selective treatment of those infants as disability discrimination). In his
book A Modest Proposal for America (2013), statistician Howard Friedmanopens with a satirical reflection of the extreme
drive to fiscal stability by ultra-conservatives.
In the 1998 edition of "A Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood there is a quote from "A Modest Proposal" before the
introduction.[24]
"A Modest Video Game Proposal" is the title of an open letter sent by activist/former attorney Jack Thompson on 10
October 2005. He proposed that someone should "create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game" that would
allow players to act out a scenario in which the game character kills video game developers.[1]
Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist includes a letter in which
he uses Swift's approach in connection with the Vietnam War. Thompson writes a letter to a local Aspen newspaper
informing them that, on Christmas Eve, he was going to use napalm to burn a number of dogs and hopefully any humans
they find. The letter protests against the burning of Vietnamese people occurring overseas.[citation needed]
The 2012 film Butcher Boys, written by Kim Henkel, is said[by whom?] to be loosely based on Jonathan Swift's A Modest
Proposal. The film's opening scene takes place in a restaurant named "J. Swift's".
On November 30, 2017, Jonathan Swift's 350th birthday, The Washington Post published a column entitled "Why
Alabamians should consider eating Democrats’ babies", by the humorous columnist Alexandra Petri.[25]