Modest Proposal_Clinton Wright

Some of the issues that Swift discusses are that there are too many poor people in his country and that most of these are women with many children that they are responsible for. He says that sometimes one mother is stuck trying to take care of up to six children and she can barely support herself. The result is that the family is out on the streets begging all the passer-byes for money to try and get by in the hard times. The satirical mode that Swift uses supports the message he is trying to get across because it is a different style of writing than would be usually used for the same information. Most writers would use a serious tone, facts, and quotes from specialists to try and get the point across. While Swift does talk about some facts, the satirical mode leads the reader to wonder if these facts are truly factual. Since Swift does use a different method than usual, the reader is drawn in and finds it easier to pay attention to the message. The satire used by Swift causes the reader to want to keep reading to find out what the next comment that he will make about eating babies. I believe his purpose is to make his fellow countrymen aware of the national issue that they face. He wants people to help out the poor and to try and come together to make the country better as a whole. He comes up with a satirical proposal to try and get people to start thinking of new and inventive ways to help out others.

Over the past few months and especially weeks, gas prices are being heavily debated throughout our country. We depend on foreign oil much more than we should and it is causing a great strain on the pockets of citizens. With prices rising to nearly $4 a gallon, there are not many choices left for people to get around. I propose that everyone goes back to riding horses around. If we all just rode horses, then no more dependence on oil and no more need for gas. Businesses can ship their goods through caravans of horse drawn wagons and therefore no longer need trucks to transport cross country to stores. When companies can pay less to ship their goods to stores, they will be able to lower prices for the customer. This decrease will cause a major shift in the economy which will slowly put money back in the pockets of all U.S citizens.