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Met MMTP (My Mate The Professor) for lunch the other day.

We were talking about cerebral stuff as you have to do with professors – moaning about the wives, discussing ailments, getting pissed – and we got onto the topic of kickstarting the economy by incenting people to buy new cars.

“What’s the average price of a new smallish car” he asked

“About €12,000, maybe €15,000”

“And what’s the VAT/GST/sales tax on that?”

“About €2500, maybe €3000”

“And the subsidy’s €2500, so the Government’s not actually giving YOU anything at all – it’s just getting your money out of the bank and back into circulation”

Talk about brainy.

No wonder he’s a professor.

AND a Ph.D.