On Swift's "A Modest Proposal"
[I had to write this for Sociology. It was kinda fun so I'm going to post it]
What Jonathan Swift is saying in his proposal is to take the surplus population on Ireland and put it to good use. They really can not do much with the people who are older than an infant because they become too skinny and will not taste as good. However, babies are born with a lot of fat and only need to be nursed for about a year rather than all of infancy and childhood. Swift planned to have the people in poverty become breeders so that they can sell their children when they turn one year old. Baby would become the new dish for rich people of England and other willing buyers from other countries. Babies would become a delicacy. Now the poor will make back the money they spent on the baby after it is sold and then some as profit. The plan is genius from beginning to end.
Swift talks about all positives to using babies as a chief food export. Firstly the supply is limitless, one baby per woman every nine months. To increase output there only needs to be one male for every four females, all men would gladly service multiple women for the greater good. Another positive to harvesting babies is that they can always be in season. If the breeders are spread out over twenty-four intervals there should be a new shipment ready roughly every two weeks, give or take a week. Lastly, there will always be a market for a delicacy. Since babies are considered delectable and fine-eating there will be plenty of buyers willing to purchase babies prepared in different ways, and because it is possible to prepare them in different ways this will cause the dining industry to specialize and each tavern may have there own specialty for serving baby.
However, it is obvious that selling babies for food is a big joke to Swift when he starts rambling about the parts of society he is “not asking everyone to change.” Of course this piece is a satire. By fixing all of the problems he is “not suggesting,” many of the problems that face the poor could be relieved or at the very least eased. He uses this ploy to sell babies as food as entertainment in front of the subliminal message of, “society is going to hell, fix it!” In example, he talks about using in a household only what that household produce of their own accord, why all the taxation, and having landlords be lenient when it comes to rent. There is no reason for some of the crap that goes on and if there is never any leverage on certain issues, then nothing will be accomplished.
Personally, I find that this piece would be a great way to solve world hunger. If only there were not so many moral issues about cannibalism or killing innocent babies. However, this is a way making abortion illegal and starting up a new industry. Now if a seventeen year old, high school girl gets knocked up it is no longer a mistake but an investment. One year and nine months from now that baby just made her at least double what she spent on raising the child. To keep this industry exclusive, the government can put an age cap, or make it based on circumstance for girls who may use this option. For instance, any girls pursuing an education and become pregnant during their schooling may use this as an option. Also, by keeping the requirement to such a small margin, the baby dish would be more of a rarity causing the demand curve to go up economically. However, there will be a clause in the protocol stating that if the mother is no longer receiving an education from a high school or colligate institution, or if the mother is married, then she must keep and raise the child. Putting children up for adoption will only be permitted after the child has reached age two, making that child out of season to be eaten.
Without morality this is a win/ win situation for all parties. First off, a girl’s future will not be threatened by accidentally getting pregnant. If anything she can use the money she makes from the baby to pay back her college loans. Secondly, the food industry would go to town on the new dish. Iron Chef on Food Network would have a field day with babies on the menu, and Emeril would gladly kick it up a notch. Lastly, fathers will be spared the need to give “the talk” to their sons because now nobody’s’ life is ruined if the boy makes the girl pregnant. In order to prevent the option to keep children before they graduate from college, children will be socialized in grade school that selling any babies they produce is the option presented if you choose to have unprotected sex before marriage or graduation.
This sort of solution can be applied to many of societies other problems. In order to create more money for medical research in the United States, we can simply just eliminate one of the major diseases. Take Diabetics for example. Every diabetic has a medical record that can tell the government where to find them, and if they are not being treated by a medical facility then they will be dead within a few weeks anyway, and after locating all the diabetics we change all there pills to sugar pills and all insulin to 100 proof alcohols. Diabetes will be wiped out of the United States in a matter of a month depending on how fast we can react and recall all the legitimate medication. Now America can focus more of their attention to cancer or heart disease with less distraction from other diseases.
This is just another ludicrous attempt to solve terrible problems with our society. What really needs to come to power is action. The fact that so many people are indecisive or believe that a thing like global warming is not a problem is setting the world up for failure. It is time to take a stand, and the time is now.
What Jonathan Swift is saying in his proposal is to take the surplus population on Ireland and put it to good use. They really can not do much with the people who are older than an infant because they become too skinny and will not taste as good. However, babies are born with a lot of fat and only need to be nursed for about a year rather than all of infancy and childhood. Swift planned to have the people in poverty become breeders so that they can sell their children when they turn one year old. Baby would become the new dish for rich people of England and other willing buyers from other countries. Babies would become a delicacy. Now the poor will make back the money they spent on the baby after it is sold and then some as profit. The plan is genius from beginning to end.
Swift talks about all positives to using babies as a chief food export. Firstly the supply is limitless, one baby per woman every nine months. To increase output there only needs to be one male for every four females, all men would gladly service multiple women for the greater good. Another positive to harvesting babies is that they can always be in season. If the breeders are spread out over twenty-four intervals there should be a new shipment ready roughly every two weeks, give or take a week. Lastly, there will always be a market for a delicacy. Since babies are considered delectable and fine-eating there will be plenty of buyers willing to purchase babies prepared in different ways, and because it is possible to prepare them in different ways this will cause the dining industry to specialize and each tavern may have there own specialty for serving baby.
However, it is obvious that selling babies for food is a big joke to Swift when he starts rambling about the parts of society he is “not asking everyone to change.” Of course this piece is a satire. By fixing all of the problems he is “not suggesting,” many of the problems that face the poor could be relieved or at the very least eased. He uses this ploy to sell babies as food as entertainment in front of the subliminal message of, “society is going to hell, fix it!” In example, he talks about using in a household only what that household produce of their own accord, why all the taxation, and having landlords be lenient when it comes to rent. There is no reason for some of the crap that goes on and if there is never any leverage on certain issues, then nothing will be accomplished.
Personally, I find that this piece would be a great way to solve world hunger. If only there were not so many moral issues about cannibalism or killing innocent babies. However, this is a way making abortion illegal and starting up a new industry. Now if a seventeen year old, high school girl gets knocked up it is no longer a mistake but an investment. One year and nine months from now that baby just made her at least double what she spent on raising the child. To keep this industry exclusive, the government can put an age cap, or make it based on circumstance for girls who may use this option. For instance, any girls pursuing an education and become pregnant during their schooling may use this as an option. Also, by keeping the requirement to such a small margin, the baby dish would be more of a rarity causing the demand curve to go up economically. However, there will be a clause in the protocol stating that if the mother is no longer receiving an education from a high school or colligate institution, or if the mother is married, then she must keep and raise the child. Putting children up for adoption will only be permitted after the child has reached age two, making that child out of season to be eaten.
Without morality this is a win/ win situation for all parties. First off, a girl’s future will not be threatened by accidentally getting pregnant. If anything she can use the money she makes from the baby to pay back her college loans. Secondly, the food industry would go to town on the new dish. Iron Chef on Food Network would have a field day with babies on the menu, and Emeril would gladly kick it up a notch. Lastly, fathers will be spared the need to give “the talk” to their sons because now nobody’s’ life is ruined if the boy makes the girl pregnant. In order to prevent the option to keep children before they graduate from college, children will be socialized in grade school that selling any babies they produce is the option presented if you choose to have unprotected sex before marriage or graduation.
This sort of solution can be applied to many of societies other problems. In order to create more money for medical research in the United States, we can simply just eliminate one of the major diseases. Take Diabetics for example. Every diabetic has a medical record that can tell the government where to find them, and if they are not being treated by a medical facility then they will be dead within a few weeks anyway, and after locating all the diabetics we change all there pills to sugar pills and all insulin to 100 proof alcohols. Diabetes will be wiped out of the United States in a matter of a month depending on how fast we can react and recall all the legitimate medication. Now America can focus more of their attention to cancer or heart disease with less distraction from other diseases.
This is just another ludicrous attempt to solve terrible problems with our society. What really needs to come to power is action. The fact that so many people are indecisive or believe that a thing like global warming is not a problem is setting the world up for failure. It is time to take a stand, and the time is now.