A Modest Proposal is a viciously satiric essay that suggests a solution to the poverty of Ireland in the early 1700s: rich men and women should simply eat the children of beggars. The essay lists the various delicious ways in which babies can be prepared for consumption, and lays out a logical plan for breeding and rearing them; it also explains the various ways in which the economy would benefit from this new commodity. The proposal skewers the heartlessness displayed toward Ireland's poor at the time.
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