Please welcome the Godfather of Satire, Jonathan Swift. A Modest Proposal is his short masterpiece. Full title: 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.

Published anonymously by Swift in 1729, the 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.

But enough of what we think. You should check it yourself.  A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

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