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, commonly referred to simply as A Modest Proposal, is a 1729 satirical essay by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift. The essay, written from the perspective of a fictional narrator, suggests that the Irish poor could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to wealthy gentlemen and ladies.