Blog #2: The Modest Proposal.

Jonathan Swift points out that there are so many poor families out on the streets of Ireland.  The parents of these families are full time beggars to support their children.  Later in life, these kids are still poor people who are begging like their parents and become bandits. Poor people shouldn't reproduce to make more poor people. His solution to this issue is to fatten up the babies and at the age of one, the parents sell them to the richer landlords. These landlords can make food, clothing, or whatever they please with the dead carcasses. Swift even came up with some baby recipes that he’d think the babies would taste good with. This would get rid of the unwanted children, let the parents get the lives they wanted, and bring income to these poor families.

There is a catch; he is not serious about this proposal.  He is trying to get the attention from the Englishmen.  Show the English they are making the Irish people pay way too much and making it hard to live. The English people raised the Irish's rent so that they families would have to try and live on the streets  with food shortage.  He is trying to catch the English with an emotional approach.  He states that he found a solution to abortions, but raising the children to be killed isn't really a solution against abortions.  English is making it too hard for the Irish to live, sooner or later, the Irish are going to have to go to great measures to survive.

Jonathan is a Protestant, being born into an English family.  Why he is fighting this you may ask, but it is because he was born in Dublin, Ireland.  To learn more about why he wrote this article click here.