Jonathan Swift, Essay Example

Jonathan Swift, an Anglo-Irish essayist and satirist, presented a so called “modest proposal” predetermined to resolve the issues of abandoned children which Ireland faced in the middle of eighteen’s century. This proposal is basically a tale of terror, for he recommended that families who were suppressed by the economical situation in the country sell their children to be savored as an elegant dish by the rich families.  Consequently, this satire-terror story gives an idea that his modest proposal would increase the income of the poor and provide the nobility with a new gastronomical delicacy, thus creating the jobs in the hospitality sector and remove abandoned children from the streets. Additionally, this approach, according to Dr. Swift, would reduce robbery, begging, the guilt complex of the rich and the suffering of the children and their families. Moreover, it would reduce the distress of the mothers who do not know where their children are or what risks they undertake while wandering around the streets.

In a contemporary economic environment and civil society the modest proposal cannot be actually implemented in the form it was initially presented, for current ethical and moral norms make it impossible to “trade in” children. However, the idea behind this approach is implementing some kind of critical change or reform, which may seem absurd on the first glance, thus saving and recovering current economy from crisis and eliminating the gap between low and high social classes. For example, I would suggest something like closing all the schools. With the development of internet technologies and distance learning opportunities more and more people are impelled to actually taking distance courses, thus improving their knowledge and education. Financially, it would definitely benefit the whole United States economy, for selling about a 100 000 public schools to mall developers would increase the budget and the money could be landed to banks and other financial institutions, thus eliminating credit, mortgage and stock issues which became the foundations of current economic crisis. Consequently, about 500 000 school buses can be given towards public transportation or to Federal Emergency Management Agency as mobile homes.

On the other hand, Swift suggested that 18^th century Ireland support its economy by turning children into food for the wealthy. I would suggest stimulating the United States economy by actually eliminating the upper class. On my opinion, this would result in equalizing the whole social structure, for there would be no poor and rich people, but only regular society and everybody would then be equal in terms of financial and social stability. I would say that rich people cannot be considered as the population of a country, but the poor people are the ones who experience each and every social or economical obstacle occurring within the country. So, I think it would be a great idea to implement the approach of total social and financial equality in any way that is required. However, this idea would be controversial to the one presented by Jonathan Swift, for he implied the opposite claiming that people of a country are actually the reaches. On the other hand, I do not imply that this is a “free lunch”, for future generations may get stuck with it. But this would be the thing to argue on.