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A Modest Proposal / For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick cover

A Modest Proposal / For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick

Chapter 3: 1729
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About This Book

A satirical pamphlet adopts a calm, pseudo‑economic tone to describe extreme poverty and overcrowding, tallying births and expenses and then proposing the shocking expedient of selling and consuming infants as a commercial solution. It details imagined culinary uses, market mechanisms, and supposed benefits to landlords and the public, using irony, mock statistics, and grotesque specificity to expose the dehumanizing logic of profit‑driven policies and to criticize social neglect, entrenched inequality, and the moral blindness of those who treat people as economic commodities.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Modest Proposal

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: A Modest Proposal

Author: Jonathan Swift

Release date: October 1, 1997 [eBook #1080]
Most recently updated: September 28, 2025

Language: English

Credits: An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODEST PROPOSAL ***

A Modest Proposal

For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland,
from being a burden on their parents or country,
and for making them beneficial to the publick.

by Dr. Jonathan Swift

1729