Title A Modest Proposal

Author Jonathan Swift

Year Published 1729

Kind of Book Humor/Political

How strongly I recommend it 10/10 

My Impressions Brilliant. Hilarious. Dripping with sarcasm. Maybe one of the best critiques of a purely economics driven type of rationality. Swift's satire hightlights the downside & absurdity of this way of thinking. He makes a coherent logical argument for why the British ought to eat babies from poor Irish families. Afterall, it would benefit the English Economy, the Irish Economy and provide a great source of nutrition for the British people. This satire exposes the downside of the cold 'rational' way many British Aristocrats were reasoning at the time. It also shows that if you forgo one premise (it is wrong to eat babies under any circumstance) you can use logic to make a perfectly rational argument for why you should! At the end he concludes by saying what would be ridiculous is to put a small tax on the English rich to solve the problem. By claiming that taxing the rich is ridiculous and eating babies is reasonable Swift makes his point.

Date Read April 2022, April 2023

Big Ideas

  • Eating babies is a modest (rational) thing to do

 

  • It is absolutely ridiculous to tax the English rich a small amount to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland when we can solve the problem by eating Irish babies

 

Arguments for Why the English Should Eat Poor Irish Babies

 

  1. It will reduce the number of Roman Catholics

Because

  • Most Irish babies from poor families are Roman Catholic

 

  1. It would be good for the Irish parents of the babies

And

  • It would be good for the Irish Economy

Because

  • Poor Irish men and women can make money by selling their babies to the British for food

 

  1. It would be good for the British Economy

Good for the Restaurant market in England

Because

  • There will likely be profit from a new dish being introduced in Brittian

 

  1. It would release the burden of paying for/caring for children on their poor/starving parents

 

  1. Eating babies will bring a new custom to English Taverns

 

  1. It would prevent poor/starving Irish parents from having abortions (because they can't afford the child)

 

  1. t would Benefit the English Economy

Because

  • Irish babies/children are worth more to the Crown as food than if they were to work

 

  1. Babies are Delicious

 

  1. Babies are very nutritious

 

  1. You can use the baby's skin to make leather good (gloves, boots etc.)

 

  1. The babies/children are likely to die from starvation anyways (because there is no work for them)

So

  • Eating babies is actually good for the babies

Because

  • You are saving them from a fate of starvation

Surprising Facts

  • It was a Ancient Roman Technique in Satire to say that a ridiculous solution is rational and that the actual reasonable solution (which the author is arguing for) is ridiculous…A kind of 'God forbid we tax the rich 5%)