A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift's ‘A Modest Proposal' carried the subhead “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” and it represents the very highest form of sarcasm and satire. He offers a solution for mass poverty, with a completely straight face, that involves allowing people to eat their own children so as to avoid starvation and bringing more suffering mouths to feed into the world.