The world's first trillionaire

The gap between the richest and poorest has now reached astronomical proportions. By the late 2030s, a well-known American business magnate has achieved a net worth exceeding $1 trillion.* This is 12 times as much as the highest figure reported at the turn of the century and is equivalent to the entire GDP of Mexico in 2015. A major growth area in terms of innovation and wealth creation is now the exploitation of space resources* – such as the metals, minerals and volatiles found in asteroids, which are driving a boom in space commercialisation. By the 2070s, there are more than ten trillionaires in the world.*

Manufacturing jobs have largely disappeared in the West

In the United States and most other developed nations, manufacturing has gone the same way as agriculture – vitally important, yet employing very few people. Robots, automation and 3D printing, now sufficiently perfected after decades of development, have taken over a wide range of roles once performed by humans.*** As China and other emerging nations make the transition to service-based economies, they too will experience this trend in the not-too-distant future.