"A Modest Proposal" was written anonymously by author Jonathan Swift in 1729. His modest proposal for the poor people of Ireland to stop being a burden is that they should start selling their children as food for the rich. Of course, that proposal is outrageous and cannot be taken seriously, nor did Swift intend it to.<u> He's using it to criticize the economic sate of Ireland, a state in which the rich get richer by shamelessly exploring the poorer classes. As Swift says, the rich "have already devoured most of the Parents." The inhuman proposal is appropriate, therefore, because it reflects the state of lack of empathy and excessive greed that rules Ireland. If the rich don't feel guilty for harming the poor so greatly, they might as well eat their children and not feel remorseful about it.</u>
