A modest proposal, in its entirety A modest proposal to prevent the children of poor people from being raised with their parents or the country, and to be beneficial to the publick, satirical essay by Jonathan Swift, published in pamphlet form in 1729 Presented under the guise of an economic treaty, the essay proposes that the country improve poverty in Ireland by killing the children of poor Irishmen and selling them as food to wealthy English landlords. Swift's proposal is a wild comment on the legal and economic exploitation of Ireland by England. The essay is a masterpiece of satire, with a mixture of rational deliberation and an unthinkable conclusion, and its title has come to symbolize any proposal to solve a problem with an effective but scandalous cure.