If AI displaces human workers, they will lose more than just pay

Yes. It removes political power. As a thought experiment, what happens when sanitation workers go on strike? What would happen if all trash collection was automated? What happens when a group of people goes from the driver's of the economy to a cost center?

there was also a report i co-authored that talked about the tax implication, at least as of 2025 [1] [1] https://get.paid.ai/hubfs/The%20$2.7%20Billion%20Agent%20Tax...

We only need look at what the computer did to many (60%) non-college educated people who have difficultly finding meaningful work which can provide for a family. Daron Acemoglu is talking about this and Building Pro-Worker AI. His 2024 Nobel Prize lecture is quite good (as are his fellow laureates that year) https://www.nber.org/papers/w34854

how the hell does paywalled content possibly get upvoted more than downvoted. are there really that many economist.com subscribers here?

Change hurts those who don't move with the change. Nothing has changed.