Quote Originally Posted by Rollo View Post
Is it?

If I deposit $5000 in the bank, they then lend out that money to people who then pay their debt to the bank with interest. That interest doesn't magically fall out of the sky, it's paid back with money gained from real work.
Ultimately, ALL money is derived from real work or the production of goods and services. That's pretty well much what the definition of money is, a medium of exchange which allows people to store and trade goods and services.

If you think that it is a a straw man argument, then please explain where you think that the money generated to pay for interest comes from.
You're kind of overlooking the fact that the original $5000 deposited in the bank was earned from "real work". What follows downstream of that is up to the person/s who did the real work. If they are wise enough to invest it toward their retirement and old age so that they won't have to live in reduced, sometimes dramatically reduced, circumstances after working for forty or so years, why would you wish to tax it at those kind of rates?