his plans come to fruition. But this merely serves to highlight the fact that it's not people like him who'll be affected by his proposals, but the Irish poor.

He thinks he's doing them a good turn out of the kindness of his heart. But he might as well live on a different planet than the people he claims to care about so much. And so he can't see how absurd and inhuman his "modest proposal" really is. Swift is satirizing the general level of contempt displayed in his time by the rich for the poor and also by the British toward their Irish subjects, whom they treated with far from benign neglect.

Swift's real reason for writing "A Modest Proposal" was to shame the wealthy people of Ireland and England who were responsible for the sufferings of the poor of Ireland. However, he chose to pretend that he was totally disingenuous in suggesting that the wealthy readers should consider eating the Irish children if their parents could not afford to support them. He even suggests that

. . . a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.

Since he could not state his real reason for writing the essay, he felt the need to offer some fictitious motive which would be in keeping with its satirical spirit. He had been pretending to be just as heartless as his readers, and therefore he decided to conclude the essay by suggesting that he would be willing to sell his own children to be eaten by affluent Irish and English cannibals but unfortunately

I have no children, by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.

In other words, he can't be accused of having an ulterior motive in making the horrible suggestions he has been making. Furthermore, the ambiguous nature of the concluding paragraph leaves the reader wondering whether he should take this man seriously, whether he is insane, or whether he is being facetious. If the author of "A Modest Proposal" is trying to be funny, it doesn't make him seem any the less sadistic in the reader's eyes, since he has chosen such an inappropriate subject for mirth. It must have been Swift's intention to leave readers guessing--and readers have been guessing about it ever since he first published it in 1729. He wanted his readers to give the proposal serious consideration. He calls his essay

A MODEST PROPOSAL for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.

If his proposal is unthinkable--then what is a better proposal for preventing the poor people of Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick?

Throughout his essay Swift is trying his best to be outrageous and yet to seem perfectly sincere and, as he says, modest. In his final paragraph, he concludes in the same spirit in which he has presented his proposal and his arguments in its support:

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich.

He could not, figuratively speaking, crack a smile at any point to suggest, "Hey! I'm only joking." He writes in a consistently somber, serious, logical, rational tone and supports his ideas with facts and figures. That explains why his final paragraph remains in the same tone and spirit as all the rest of his essay. It is the tone and style of this unusual work that have won it a permanent place in English literature. Swift shows his great genius in choosing such an original and attention-getting form in which to present a picture of the sufferings of the poor oppressed people of Ireland.

The purpose of this pamphlet was to draw attention to the plight of the impoverished Irish Catholics and the way in which they were being further impoverished by the actions of the rich English Protestants, who were often the owners of the land on which the Irish tenant farmers worked and lived. By 1729, the year in which Swift penned this satire—a formal literary genre in which the author draws attention to some (usually) social problem in an attempt to get people to change for the better—much of the land in Ireland had actually been purchased by the English, and they were charging exorbitant rent from the Irish. Many of these poor tenant farmers could only pay their rent without having enough money left over for food, clothes, and other necessities. As a result, Swift claims that the English were already figuratively "devouring" the Irish—so, why not literally devour them, too? He, of course, is using verbal irony here: he does not actually want the Irish to sell their babies as a food source; he wants the English to recognize the immorality and inhumanity of their actions and change.

The purpose of "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift was to alleviate the suffering of the Irish Catholics. he was Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Dublin, and as such was in the position to observe first hand the sufferings of the Irish under English rule. The logic of this work is that of reductio ad absurdum, suggesting an absurd remedy to show the gravity of the situation and the lack of reasonable alternatives that would enable the Irish to alleviate their own poverty, and thus the need for charity. We know that the suggestion of eating babies is not serious because of both the general acceptable standards of the place and period and also Swift's own biography and position.

Swift's "A Modest Proposal" attempts to embarrass and ridicule the English government, wealthy English businessmen, and wealthy Irish businessmen: anyone who was hurting the Irish poor. 

His argument is ironic, however, so literally stating his argument won't reveal his purpose.  Literally, his argument is that using poor Irish children as a food source will not only alleviate the poverty of poor Irish people, but will provide great cuisine for the wealthy.

Taking the irony into account, though, the argument of the essay is really that those who possess power over the Irish poor should show at least one little ounce of compassion toward them.   

The essay is a classic of satirical literature, but, ironically, of course, it failed to cause any significant change.