Swift?s ?A Modest Proposal??

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Swift’s Modest Proposal for the Preventing the Children of Poor People from being a burden to their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public is a satire of the English opinion of the Irish, barbarians. Though this is a satire, Swift has a good point about eating children. In the world today there are approximately 6 billion people, many being children. By the year 2050, according to the World Population Profile: 1998, the population will reach 9.3 billion. Consumption of children would help this and many other problems that afflict our society as a whole.
“For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our most dangerous enemies; and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an Episcopal curate.” (Swift, 3) He talks of lessening the number of people, which is good, considering at this time we have approximately six billion people, and the projected number for the year 2050 is 9.3 billion. While the rate of increase has declined over the years, adding the extra people to the earth is similar to repopulating Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza to the existing population each year. Having 9.5 billion people habituating the earth, there will be a quarter as much fresh water per person in 2050 as there was in 1950. We lose over 100 species at 1000 times their natural rate. By consuming infants, we decrease the population in two ways, they will not grow to produce another generation and they will not live. In addition, this solves the problem of starvation, because many essential nutrients are stored in flesh, many cultures rely on a diet of only meat and stay healthy. Therefore, we wont lose to starvation, but we will have less people.
“Secondly, the poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.” (Swift, 4) The countries with the lowest population growth, have the most stable incomes, and thrive. Therefore, the consumption of hu...

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...as many benefits, mostly financial, but also some societal. With close to six billion people sharing one earth, this someday may be the case, because natural disasters, famine, war, and other factors, have not halted the increase. Consequently, the residence of the planet are at a point of decision, what to do about the population. China placed stringent laws upon its people to limit themselves to one child. However, protestors say this violates their human rights. Though Swift meant for this piece to mock the English, he opened a whole different “can of worms.”

Works Cited
Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. English Department, University of Pennsylvania. 6 February 2000 <http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/courses/95c/texts/modest.html>.
Battered Women. Templar Research Institute. 16 February 2000 <http://www.templar-research-inst.org/battered.html>.
Zero Population Growth. The Central Oregon Chapter of Zero Population Growth. 16 February 2000 <http://www.envirocenter.org/groups/zeropop/zeropop.html>.
World Population Continues to Grow. Enviromental News Network. 16 February 2000 <http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archieve/1999/04/040599/population_2496.asp>.

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