There used to be a class strata by which we divided up our society: The Poor Class (which is still with us today), into which I was born during the Great Depression; The Middle Class Poor (which is alive and well), which I belonged as when I was married and a soldier in the Second World War; The Lower Middle Class (Which has disappeared off the face of our continent), which I joined when my children came along and the postwar economy boomed; The Middle Class (gone and disintegrated into dust), which I became a member of when my children were in school and our Cold War economy sustained us; The Upper Middle Class, (a few of whom have melded into the rich class -- the rest downward spiraling into --) which I could afford to belong to once my children were out on their own; The Middle Class again when we had that long run of Republicans in the White House; The Lower Middle Class again during the Democratic White House Recovery years; and now the Middle Class Poor again when old age and sickness stuck us and wiped out every asset we worked for.

Ah, but now there is a new economic strata in the mix and that should help to fill the gaps. We now have The Creative Class! That kind of strata division sounds absurd but there are many cities recruiting gay people and bohemians to jump-start their economies. According to a new theory devised by Richard Florida, a professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University, towns that have lots of gays and bohemians (by which he means authors, painters, musicians and other "artistically creative people") are likely to thrive.

Comprising doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and computer programmers - almost everyone, in short, who is paid to think for a living - The Creative Class now accounts for nearly 30 percent of the workforce. That's double what it was 20 years ago and eight times what it was when I was making my bones. Already the dominant economic group, The Creative Class, is likely only to grow in proportion to what it produces - ideas, information and technology - as it becomes an ever-larger part of the national economy. "Creativity has come to be valued," writes Mr. Florida, "because new technologies, new industries, new wealth and all other good economic things flow from it."

This class is hardly a newly formed strata. They were predicted to appear on our horizon some thirty years ago when social scientists started writing about them under labels ranging from "knowledge" and "information" workers to "symbolic analysts." As early as two years ago, the journalist David Brooks documented The Creative Class's bloated bank accounts and weakness for Starbucks and S.U.V.'s in his witty best seller, "Bobos in Paradise" (Bobos being affectionate shorthand for "bourgeois bohemians"). In short, there is growing recognition that when it comes to economic growth, "the relatively well educated and relatively creative are disproportionately important."

However a "pattern of geographic and class segmentation far worse than any we've ever had," says one observer, The Creative Class may mean boom times for one city and obsolescence for another. The reason, he contends, is that this tattooed and espresso-sipping set is unusually finicky; they settle in those cities that offer them the highest-paying jobs in their fields. But creative-class workers are more particular; they choose cities for their tolerant environments and diverse populations as well as good jobs.

This is where gays and bohemians come in. Towns that have lots of them are more likely to have creative-class workers, high-tech industry and, as a result, strong economic growth. Not because there are disproportionate numbers of gays and bohemians in high-tech jobs but because their presence signals an open-minded and varied community of the sort that appeals to software engineers and entrepreneurs.

This, in essence, is Mr. Florida's "creative capital theory." As he put it, "You cannot get a technologically innovative place unless it opens its doors to weirdness, eccentricity and difference."

So, we ask, where is this new class of society headed? And once they get there, will they find their permanent niche?