Costs and benefits of a modest proposal

The principles of Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (SCBA) are used to evaluate Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal. This was a suggestion for solving the problems of poverty and unemployment in eighteenth-century Ireland by selling the ‘surplus’ babies of the poor to supply the tables of the rich. On the evidence supplied by Swift and on fairly conservative assumptions, the project would appear to have a very high rate of return. This conclusion is, however, very sensitive to the relevant rates of interest and costs of construction. Some possible criticisms—in particular of the method of valuing human life — are rebutted.