fairly intelligent people come up with asinine solutions around it. He posed it as a "modest proposal". [0] That pretty much guarantees that he did not intend

fairly intelligent people come up with asinine solutions around it. He posed it as a "modest proposal". [0] That pretty much guarantees that he did not intend it to be a serious or robustly presented option. Unless he actually enjoys eating Irish babies, which seems unlikely. (If you check out the story linked, it's important to know that it was written against the backdrop of a not-completely-passive bit of Irish genocide) [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm