'A Modest Proposal' begins by deploring the sad fate of the poverty-stricken Irish who have to spend all their time trying to feed their large families. As a solution to the poverty in which these families are forced to live, by virtue of having so many mouths to feed, Swift suggests that these poor Irish families should fatten up their children and sell them to the rich English land owners.
He argues that children could be sold into a meat market as early as the age of one, giving poor families