A Modest Proposal.

Johnathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick" contains some rather inflammatory ideas (or namely one inflammatory idea).  The "proposal" as mentioned in the title is extremely logical, coldly logical in fact. Ireland, being in poor economic standing was facing some of the issues commonly found when in that position, homelessness or generally decrepit living conditions especially in 1729 (the year the piece was written) the conditions must have been horrendous.

The solution posed by Swift is to take the children, which there are an excess of and be sold as a delicacy to those with a better economic standing. Obviously Swift was writing this in a satirical fashion, but to make an interesting point. My family was very active in the Northern Irish community in Philadelphia and as such I am very plugged into things of this nature. And regardless of the time anything after the war with the English made things extremely hard on the Irish (especially in the North). Posed with British rule and their lack of compassion this piece set its sights on pointing out the cold calculations of the British in concerns with the relationship with the Irish.
http://www.online-literature.com/swift/
Image Source:
http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/2011/01/25/demotivational-posters-jonathan-swift/