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A Response To Jonathan Swift's Essay A Modest Proposal

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In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote a revolutionary proposal to ease the suffering of the Irish working class. His essay “A Modest Proposal” provided a commonsense solution to his era’s major issues. Today, I make an adaptation of his essay, “A Modern Modest Proposal.” It is a drab task to journey through the news journals and academic publications that address today’s society. Our wages have failed to grow, millions rely on food stamps, and nearly 43 percent of seniors would be indigent without Social Security. A majority of our nation’s sustenance is swallowed by these programs. As our national debt grows, we are forced to look to other solutions. The current order must be replaced by my modest proposal. It’s a shame that the elderly have constructed such a reliance on the backs of children and grandchildren. Their demand for Social Security requires a quarter of our federal budget and is often supplemented by additional financial contributions from their families. Rather than allowing these citizens to leech off society, it seemed prudent to seek out a solution that would allow these citizens to maintain their dignity despite the deplorable conditions of our country. It would be much nobler for these gray-haired citizens to make one …show more content…

Currently, there are 59 million citizens on Social Security, which would provide a great influx of food to our hungriest citizens and would likely allow us to drastically reduce our expenditures on other social programs. This food supply will be sustained for many years, as many fresh bodies reach the age of Social Security every year. There is also no need to worry about the logistics of transferring these bodies, because most seniors can be locally sourced. I have also been assured by a knowing man that seniors are exceptionally delicious and, having had more time to age, are much more tender than their infant

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Elderly people, well most of the eldery today depend on social security because they cant get a job. Either disabled, retired, or just to old to get a job. Food Stamp Act- Provides food purchasing assistance for low and no income people living in the United States. I believe it is important because it provides way for food so they wont go hungry. Congress also created this act to stregthen agriculture economy.

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“A Modest Proposal,” takes advantage of the overlooked pamphlets, and constructs a ridiculous proposal. The author, Jonathan Swift, does this to illustrate how poor the social classes of Ireland was during its time of poverty in 1729. Swift proposes that babies from the underprivileged should be used to feeding and clothing thousands to improve Ireland’s economy and standard of living. He states this because many women were procreating, but were unable to provide for their children. Swift also states that his proposal would make the babies beneficial to the public.

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Johnathon Swift is often referred to as one of the most unconcealed satirical writers of the eighteenth century. Using irony and exaggeration in his writings, he makes it more evidently the extremes he would take to give his satirical views of society across to his readers. In what many would call one of Swift’s most bazar essays “A Modest Proposal,” he would show just how far he was willing to do so. In his own remarks on Swifts proposal C.J Rawson commented, “The form of title is that of many 'modest proposals ' and 'humble petitions ' which appeared in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 'dealing with economic problems, particularly with problems concerning population, labor, unemployment, and poverty” (2). Swift

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