The reasoning, as I understand it: if we taxed rich people too much, it would discourage other people from wanting to be rich, which is bad for the economy.
It's always about the right response to the right situation. Taxes should be raised in an inflationary environment and lowered in a deflationary environment. The reasoning is quite intuitive. Inflation is a boom, deflation is a bust. It's easier to make money in a boom so the economy can support a greater tax burden. In a bust it's difficult to make money which means the economy can only support a lesser tax burden.
So the questions are "What is currently booming?" "What is currently undergoing a bust?". Well, obviously housing and stocks are booming. Wages are stagnating and thus are undergoing a (relative) bust. Just blindly reducing taxes on one side can be just as harmful as it can be good.
People hoard money. Rich people manage to hoard a lot. All the hoarding is slowing the money down. Depressing the economy.
> Taxes should be raised in an inflationary environment...
Did you mean spending? Because then you'd be touching on the philosophical difference between Keynesians and Modern Monetary Theorists (MMT). Whereas as most classical Liberal economists emphasized deficits, MMT emphasizes inflation. (Or maybe you're nodding towards the Laffer Curve.)
Regardless. Taxes are how governments pull money thru the economy. If we want to keep the money moving, thereby grow the economy, we need to tax the hoards.
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In the case of more tax breaks, abatements for Samsung, things are a little different.
Samsung's just exfiltrating money. From Austin, from Texas, from the USA.
Since our polis can no longer have a rationale discussion about taxes, "omgherd taxes are theft", I propose a novel solution:
Austin should become a Samsung shareholder. Holdings equal to the value of the tax breaks. Like for like. Mutual cross holding investments, just like a true keiretsu.
Name any right-wing politician who has ever said something like this. Your explanation is nice in theory, but it's never been part of the national discussion about taxation.
If you are rich enough you can pick what country gets to tax you, if one country raises the tax too much, rich people will just move their taxable assets to another country.
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.“ -disputed John Steinbeck quote