A Modest Proposal

The satiric “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift was written during a time when Ireland was suffering greatly. As Swift describes, “the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms.” Aggravated by the conditions of his country, the author offers a proposal in order to ameliorate his afflicted home. Some of the issues he identifies are the vast number of beggars on the streets, the many instances of extreme poverty, voluntary abortions and the murdering of bastard children, and the country’s inability to do anything to fix these problems. The satirical mode that he utilizes supports his overall message. Because no one else has really made any attempts to come up with a solution, Swift creates his own sarcastic proposal in order to portray his aggravation and hopefully call others to action. The method he uses is effective because it shows how desperate the country is. It is also effective because it makes those in power feel foolish for not having made any steps towards improvement. Under the title, Swift gives his purpose for writing the piece: “For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public.” However the true purpose is to get people to take notice and do something about the extreme poverty that has afflicted the nation.  

     One issue that is commonly debated in the United States is the nation’s debt. Spending money that we just don’t have has driven up the national debt into the trillions of dollars range. Politicians constantly talk about and debate over budget cuts that never seem to materialize. And as they waste time, the debt continues to grow and grow. Although taxes seem to rise more and more every year, the debt is not being lessened at all. Politicians and policy makers need to realize that we cannot continue to spend the way that we have for the last couple of years. There needs to be some sort of change made. In order to spend money, we need to have money, so for now, we are just going to have to get away with less. It’s as simple as that. Although long-term goals do need to be made, something needs to be done now. We can’t continually put this debt off hoping it will somehow work itself out in the future. That is just not realistic. Something must be done or soon we will see our country bankrupt.