Question

What is Swift’s purpose in listing other ways to solve the issue of poverty?

Answer 1

I think i answered a question similar to this recently, so i'm pretty sure i know what excerpt this question refers to. swift lists these other ways in this sort of "backwards" manner--it's an old trick where you say "oh don't even get me started on [THIS THING THAT I WANT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT]" when no one mentioned it. by you bringing it up and saying, "i don't want to talk about it" you've effectively brought the matter into question. swift is using the same tactic here, in a sense.

he says "therefore let no man talk to me about..." then goes on to list all the actual, feasible ways that his country could solve the problem. he suggests a bunch of different ideas for reform, but also maintains that his work is a satire by stating that he doesn't want to hear about it. the list is used to show that a) swift is reasonable, and understands the true ways that the country could solve the problem, but also b) he's going to take it to the extreme. people at the time weren't even willing to pay TAXES to help their country, so swift takes it several steps further and says, "well, how about just... eating the children?" he offers reasonable suggestions (all of which contain some measure of sacrifice from the people), then suggests arguably the biggest sacrifice of all: future generations, human life, and their own children.