“A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick,” by Jonathan Swift is one of the most enduring pieces of economic and political satire in the English language. This piece always makes for a lively class discussion, marking it as one of the true highlights of the term. It is almost as good as the stunned silence that has greeted Wendell Potter for the list six years.

“A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift