A Modest Proposal

An early (2008) satirical proposal to denominate money in 'dead children' (~$800 to save a life), so a GBP250,000 luxury doghouse reads as '500 dead children' and luxury spending wears its opportunity cost on its face. Darkly funny and rhetorically sharp; a clear precursor to his (and EA's) 'shut up and multiply' / cost-per-life framing, years before EA crystallized.

Quality 70 · Strong. Strong: a memorable, provocative device that makes opportunity cost visceral - slight in length but rhetorically potent and influential as an EA precursor. ~70.

Claude’s paradigm shift 60 · Notable shift. The 'dead children as currency' device is an original, striking framing of opportunity cost, notably early (2008) for the EA sensibility it prefigures. ~60.

Real-world impact 3 · Moderate. An early (2008) satirical device — denominate money in 'dead children' (~$800/life) so luxury spending wears its opportunity cost on its face — that makes the cost-per-life framing visceral, years before EA crystallized it. Conceptual influence as an EA precursor, slight in length, no material change — modest RWI.

Humor 3/5 · Scissor Statement. Swiftian satire proposing 'dead children' (~$800, the cost to save a life via charity) as a unit of currency to force awareness of opportunity costs — DC coins, dead puppies, wounded Kenyans, 'a doghouse that costs 500 dead children'; sustained dark-comic conceit with a real EA point → 3.