Swift's modest proposal is a piece about Ireland during a particular time, but it also has a timeless quality to it. By reading "A Modest Proposal" we can gain insight to many other situations where race and class is involved. I think it's important to point out that the Irish were once considered a separate and inferior race, The English looked down upon them and they resented it, religious differences didn't help the situation. The situation in Guatemala also has a racial/ethnic component because most of the poor are indigenous where as the wealthy are non-indigenous. The way I read a modest proposal is Swift is trying to poke fun at the social engineering that was popular among a certain intellectual elite in England. I think Swift the Irish-Catholic clergyman is urging the reader to have compassion for the Irish people rather than to simply look for quick fix solutions as if Irish are in themselves a problem.