David Kirchens
Instructor Irene Robles-Huerta
English 111
18 February 2016
“Poverty” The Never Ending Story
Poverty is not the absence of money in your bank; it’s the absence of opportunity to succeed. After reading “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, it is apparent that poverty is something that is almost impossible to escape. Since the beginning of time, the saying has been true; “the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer”. We see beggars on the side of the street and turn our heads the opposite way. Society has learned to hate those in need, because it has been told time after time, that poor people are less worthy than the wealthy. It is the fortunate people of this world that keep the poor people poor, by strengthening the welfare
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Although some may argue that people who are on welfare or government assistance are lazy and unproductive to society, it is not the case at all, for most welfare recipients. People using government assistance are hated even, by those who do not need it, because society has been told that “if you are using an “EBT” card then, you are wasting tax payer’s money by mooching off the government”. The reason most poor people on government assistance, and don't create opportunities to succeed and make more money, is because it is more economical for them to collect a government check once a moth, than to work hard day in and day out to support their families. For example: If a single mother with two kids earns $15,000 a year from a minimum wage job, she could be entitled to around $35,000 a year in government assistance. If the same single mother made just a little more a year, she would be cut-off from government assistance, because she made too much money. Although she wouldn't have made enough money to support her family with basic necessities, child care, and clothes that her children will grow out of, the government says “you’re above the poverty line, so sorry, no more money for you”. In order for her to maintain her household after a loss of government assistance, she would have to make over $50,000 a year. This amount of money is nearly impossible for a single mother to make, with no job …show more content…
It is a proven argument that creating new business or expanding current business, is an amazing way to boost economy, create jobs for the un-employed, and offer a career ladder for people stuck in minimum wage jobs. The only problem with this solution to poverty is that, the government has imposes too many regulations on businesses. So many unnecessary resources are spent trying to meet strict guidelines and regulations set forth by the government, that the creation of new businesses or expansions of current businesses are devastated. This limits possible job creation for those who need them, causing even more un-employment and the need for more government assistance as a result, Once again keeping the poor in poverty. Who is guiding the hand of the politicians that make all of these rules and regulations? The rich are the ones who tell the politicians which regulations would best suite them. The “Super Rich” are the ones who really run the government. Money talks and politicians
Jonathan Swift in his essay, "A Modest Proposal" suggests a unique solution to the problem concerning poor children in Ireland. Swift uses several analytical techniques like statistics, induction, and testimony to persuade his readers. His idea is admirable because he suggests that instead of putting money into the problem, one can make money from the problem. However, his proposal is inhumane.
It seems like the Welfare system treats its recipients with disrespect and shame to discourage them from joining the system. The people who made and run Welfare in the 1990s made Welfare into a blame game and forces recipients to solely blame themselves for their poverty. The moral prescriptions in individually getting rid of poverty according to TANF are the Work Plan/Family Plan. The focuses on work and family are contradictory because of how little time there is to get both goals done and each goal perpetuates the idea that it is the most important part of ending poverty. It seems like Welfare is more about getting people off of Welfare than eradicating poverty. There is a difference in the goals and that is reflected in how the recipients are treated and how Welfare is run.
The Effectiveness of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift "A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public" - Jonathan Swift 1729. In reading this you will discover the answer to the above question in three parts; · How effective is it as an argument · How effective is it as a piece of information · How effective is it as satire "A Modest Proposal" first appeared in public in 1729, Swift wrote this article after all of his previous suggestions had been rejected by the Irish authorities. Swift felt the English government had psychologically exiled him and this greatly added to the rage he felt over the way the Irish People were treated or rather mistreated by the English. Although Swift's highest and most prominent concerns were for his own class, the Anglo-Irish, he in the end spoke for the nation as a whole.
In Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” published in 1729, Swift engages in an extraordinary amount of irony and satire. Swift states that in order to reduce famine in Ireland and to solve the problems that they are having that eating children would be a good solution. This is not the purpose of Swift’s essay. The real intent was to get the people of Britain to notice that the ideas that they were coming up with were not any better than his satirical one, and new ideas and efforts needed to come forth in order to solve the problem.
It was back in the 1700’s in Britain that true power struggle, rebellion, doubts in the government and extreme poverty began to take light. Thousands of people were left homeless and without clothes, forcing them to defecate on the streets, ultimately leading to disease and plight. Discrimination also played a very large role in Britain, as they treated the Irish as mere scum, leaving them without basic human needs or rights. Jonathan Swift, an Anglo-Irishman born in Dublin in the year 1667, became a key role in the digressing of discrimination and helped better the failing British nation with his satirical – yet influential – writings that easily swayed society. His writing style contained enormous amounts of irony and wit, especially in one of his most famous works titled A Modest Proposal.
Working money provides more for families than borrowed money. Money cannot continue to be distributed unfairly from productive Americans to Americans who refuse to be constructive. Americans need to concentrate on the long-term effects of welfare. People are depending on the programs available to survive. What are we teaching our future generations, to rely on someone else? According to _ over one hundred and forty million dollars were spent on SNAP/Food Stamps in February 2016 alone; however, this was only in Tennessee. Welfare recipients are taking advantage of many aid and programs that should be profiting other families or children in crisis. Growing up there were five of us in our household. I have no problem with tax dollars being used to help families in a crisis. There were three children, my dad, and step mom; however, my dad was the only source of income for our family; therefore, my dad had to pay not only his expenses, but for four other family members too. Welfare recipients must think about this on only a small spectrum of how this would affect a family
Swift was said to “declare at one stage in his life: ‘I am not of this vile country (Ireland), I am an Englishman’” (Hertford website). In his satire “A Modest Proposal,” he illustrates his dislike not only for the Irish, but for the English, organized religions, rich, greedy landlords, and people of power. It is obvious that Swift dislikes these people, but the reader must explore from where his loathing for the groups of people stems. I believe Swift not only wanted to attack these various types of people to defend the defenseless poor beggars, but he also had personal motives for his writings that stemmed from unconscious feelings, located in what Sigmund Freud would call the id, that Swift developed in his earlier years of life.
Jonathan Swift has been named one of the most memorable satirist in English, Swift’s, A
Johnathan Swift starts his writing with “the deplorable state of the kingdom” speaking of Ireland and its atrocious population problems, and its inability to find a use for Ireland’s influx in population (385). Swift then begins to explain emotional and statistical reasoning for his so called “scheme” a modest proposal. A plan to reduce Irelands population and find a need and use for it by eating fresh infants and selling them at market for the rich to dine on, creating economic prosperity for those swift labels as breeders (Swift 386). Therefore balancing out Irelands population and wealth ratio, much like the trickledown effect. Whereas Garrett Harding starts his writing speaking of environmentalists ideologies of planet earth and its resource management, he claims is a spaceship metaphor (170). He then explains lifeboat ethics. His explanation of how if the world’s resources and wealth were dispersed freely to the masses would drown the lifeboat, causing “complete justice” (171). He explains how we must exclude some because it is necessary to our survival although this is viewed as harsh and against our natural instinct. Making the remainder sustainable, prosperous, and able to survive. Hardin and Swift form theories by expounding
Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal” is a call to action to the people in Ireland. He states the problem of poverty that the country is currently facing and provides options in how to solve this problem. In order to properly present his argument to his audience, he provides a horrific solution, blames a certain group of people, and lastly provides his actual solutions at the end of the essay. This shows the audience that the argument Swift presents is a logical argument.
This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform in Ireland.
“If only there was a way to end world hunger.” Is that not a plea that has been the base creed of a legion of organizations determined to help the famished and impoverished? As Jonathon Swift has said in his Gulliver’s Travels, “Poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and Pride and Hunger will ever be at variance” (2602). Swift criticizes this reality in Gulliver’s Travels just as he does in his essay, “A Modest Proposal”; however, unlike in Gulliver’s Travels, the speaker in the “Proposal” offers a not-so-modest solution to the issue of hunger in Ireland: cannibalism. The speaker in Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” develops a firm argument using Aristotle’s various modes of persuasion – logos, mostly, but ethos and pathos as well – to the fullest by utilizing convincing tone, specific diction, and frequent statistics that weave a certain irony to effectively criticize the faults of both the wealthy elite and the poverty-stricken Irish.
The satirical essay “A Modest Proposal” written and published in in 1729 by an Anglo- Irish man named Jonathan Swift, in response to the worsening conditions of Ireland, was one of his most controversial and severe writings of his time. The narrator in Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal” argues for a drastic and radical end to poverty in Ireland. Swift’s proposal suggests that the needy, poor people of Ireland can ease their troubles simply by selling their children as food to the rich and make them useful, benefitting the public. With the use of irony, exaggeration and ridicule Swift mocks feelings and attitudes towards the poor people of Ireland and the politicians. However, with the use of satire Swift creates a strong argument that reveals and draws attention to a solution to end the severity of the poverty-stricken Ireland.
Poverty is an undeniable problem in America. In 2014, 14.8 percent of the United States was in poverty (“Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet”). There are more people in the United States than it seems that do not have their basic necessities. In an
Has anyone ever considered thinking about what the world is really going through? How many people don’t have the necessities in order to survive? If so, what are these people going through? Poverty is the state of one who lacks a standard or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Sometimes events occur that changes a person’s perspective on life. Poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/her. Over half of the world is going through this tragedy and we, being the ones who created it, have the responsibility to end it.