By 2050 there won’t be any light manufacturing anywhere.
Small items will be made right in the home using a desktop assembler, imagine a very, very advanced 3D printer able to make everything from medicine and tools to the family dinner.
The age of automation will be in full swing.
Most nations will have a guaranteed annual income... no, not welfare. It will be one of the results of full automation.
It actually will be the beginnings of an age where money does grow on trees, so to speak.
Socialists will hate it because advanced automation means people won’t need government to take care of themselves.
2050 will be nothing like 2014.
Nearly everything will be made by automated machines. Houses, cars, aircraft, toys, general electronics, food, roads, clothes... All at nearly zero cost. Almost everything will be disposable. Two things will be in demand..raw materials and energy. Raw materials will be harvested and processed automatically. Unless there is a fusion energy breakthrough then manufacturing will run on solar. I know many scoff at solar but solar gets cheaper every day and it will become a LOT cheaper than fossil fuel energy in a few decades.
There will be almost no low-skill or manual labor jobs.
It is all inevitable.
paid for by who?