A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick, commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729.

What is Swift's real proposal in a modest proposal?

Presented in the guise of an economic treatise, the essay proposes that the country ameliorate poverty in Ireland by butchering the children of the Irish poor and selling them as food to wealthy English landlords. Swift's proposal is a savage comment on England's legal and economic exploitation of Ireland.

What is the real message of a modest proposal?

What is the main idea of a modest proposal? The main idea of the actual story has to do with decreasing the overpopulation by selling babies as food. Swift suggests that the wealthy purchase the infants of the poor and serve them as a delicacy.