Tech's gilded glory didn't mean much to Trump's supporters - USA TODAY

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Harold, who is homeless, walks downtown past a campaign sign on October 24, 2016 in East Liverpool, Ohio. East Liverpool, once prosperous from steel mills and a vibrant ceramics industry, has been negatively effected by unemployment and an opiate epidemic.(Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Balough lives 2,000 miles from Silicon Valley, but it might as well be on the other side of the world.

“We don’t have many jobs here,” says Balough, 65, a high school teacher in West Plains, Mo., who voted for President-elect Donald Trump. “We have lumber mills, but a few shoe and clothing factories got shipped out. As far as we’re concerned, the two coasts and the Midwest are two different cultures. It’s like Europe is different than America."

Trump's victory over Clinton — an outcome few in the tech industry supported, and many failed to believe would happen — has engendered a mix of shock, anger, grief and denial in Silicon Valley. It's also prompted many to ask: Why and how did the companies that have become the most valuable in America lose touch with great pools of their customers?

One thing seems certain: While many of those voters engaged with this election using the fruits of the tech industry's latest advances, sharing curated news on Facebook, settling arguments via Google and checking notifications on an Apple iPhone, few thought they were enjoying a direct economic benefit from the U.S. tech industry. In some cases, it's hurt them.

Steel mills "can't keep up with cheap imports" or advances in technology, says Ray Rogg, 54, a steel worker from Erlanger, Ky.

"The more automated and technical things are, and with better computers, it eliminates people," says Rogg, who has worked 26 years at the TMK Ipsco mill in Wilder, Ky. "It winds up streamlining things, and taking away jobs.”

The technology boom may have created vast wealth and a swathe of enviable, high-paying jobs clustered around metro areas like San Francisco and Seattle, but a nationwide surge in tech jobs has failed to follow. Much of the Rust Belt, South and Midwest are still reeling from the economic dislocations of globalization, the financial crisis and a technology-driven boom in productivity.

Trump's economic views swayed Randy Herschelman of Dallas. (Photo: Randy Herschelman, for USA TODAY)

“Manufacturing jobs in the current economy are going away — we are moving to a service economy,” says Steve Bennet, an adjunct professor at San Jose State University who specializes in entrepreneurship and venture capital.

In interviews with Trump voters across the nation, they described themselves as working men and women who simply want decent-paying jobs, with affordable health care, so they can take care of themselves and their families. Many ultimately overlooked Trump’s off-putting comments because their underlying fear and anxiety about the economy runs deep.

Deep red, in fact. Trump handily beat Hillary Clinton 70%-26% in counties dominated by manufacturing, according to exit polls by Edison Research. He rolled to a 60%-37% advantage in the 121 reporting counties with the highest rates of unemployment.

The success of Silicon Valley in all its gilded glory hasn't translated to jobs, as machines and on-demand work replace low- and middle-income work.

Employment at computer and electronic companies has plummeted 45% since the 1990s, according to Labor Department statistics. They employed 1.03 million in the U.S. in August, down from 1.87 million in 2001. In the same 15-year period, total employment at semiconductor makers was halved, to 359,000.

Hardware production has shifted overseas, as exemplified by Apple’s large manufacturing facilities in China and Ireland and chip maker Micron’s massive offshoring of jobs to Asia.

Yet while the blue-collar voter came out for Trump, that didn't tell the full story: 48% of his voters made $100,000 a year or more and 43% held college degrees, according to exit polls.

“I was intrigued by a non-establishment figure, and I agreed with his policies on immigration and health care,” says Mika Pittman, 44, an IT administrator from Princeton, Minn.

Automated technology and services have allowed start-ups to keep their workforces austere — WhatsApp had 55 people when Facebook acquired it for $21.8 billion in 2014. And tech whizzes at Amazon, Tesla Motors and elsewhere have come up with high-end production lines in the U.S. that minimize people.

Companies like Amazon and Walmart are seen as marginalizing opportunities for small businesses. "Washington ignores small business," says Maxine Gutman, 56, an insurance attorney in Parkland, Fla. "I support Trump for his business background."

“The economy was No. 1 for me,” says Randy Herschelman, 58, a technical recruiter in Dallas. “(Trump) understands the bottom line, and will delegate the right people to execute his agenda. Obamacare and taxation are killing the middle class.”

Maxine Gutman, an attorney in Florida, was swayed by Trump's business background. (Photo: Maxine Gutman, for USA TODAY)

The future, meanwhile, is expected to bring drones, robots, driverless cars and machine learning that further reduce demand for jobs.

"Digital technology is at ground zero of what's happening. It delivers enormous benefits but it also has enormous costs,” says Paul Saffo, a futurist based in Silicon Valley. “The bad news is that technology accelerates the disruption in jobs. The good news is that technology gives people a place to complain about it when they don't have a job."

Sixteen years ago, the sentiment about technology was far different. The economic team of then-President Clinton hailed technology as one of the “principle engines” of growth of the U.S. economy.

An infrastructure jobs bill, rumored as a bipartisan project to assuage both sides, could be among Trump’s first moves as the self-proclaimed "jobs" president. "Anything that helps the steel workers and those that lay concrete is so important," Rogg says.

Mika Pittman wanted a non-establishment candidate for president. (Photo: Mika Pittman, for USA TODAY)

Until then, Trump supporters interviewed for this story — who insist gender and race relations did not influence their vote — are wishing the President-elect succeeds in producing jobs where they live.

Cliff Johnson, 79, a realtor in Colorado Springs, Colo., voted for Trump because he represents a “voice for those of who feel our voices aren’t heard by either party.” He supports Trump’s stances on the economy, immigration and free trade.

“He’s a man for our times, a voice for the silent and moral majority,” he says.

Contributing: Jessica Guynn.

Follow USA TODAY San Francisco Bureau Chief Jon Swartz @jswartz on Twitter.

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