What is the speaker's attitude toward the poor? (Do not confuse the speaker with the author.) How does he dehumanize them?

The speaker believes the poor should be economical, and he says that to solve the problem of poverty the Irish should eat their babies when the infants become one year old. While some serious alternatives are provided, the piece at least involves a humorous method of getting people thinking about the real issues and how they might be solved in a way other than cannibalism.