Hightower Lowdown

If you’re like me, when you buy a shower curtain, you think of it as a utilitarian product: It’s about keeping the water inside the tub.
My guess is that you would not want to shell out $6,000 for that shower curtain.
Even if you won the lottery and money was no object, you still wouldn’t think of
laying out Six Large for such a trifle.
Therein lies the difference between us and the pampered CEO class. Dennis Kozlowski, for example, didn’t flinch when he put a $6,000 shower curtain in his lavish Fifth Avenue apartment. Dennis is the former CEO of Tyco International, now disgraced by revelations of his fiscal mismanagement and imperial lifestyle.
What Kozlowski’s recent comeuppance reveals is that excess is in the eye of the beholder. A New York decorator of luxury apartments explains that, after all, when you’re dealing with $200-a-yard fabric, imported trim at $200 a foot, swags and tassels, custom-made linings, and whatnot—well, my dear, there’s your $6,000 curtain.
For Kozlowski and company, it’s about making a power statement, about the “peacock rich” fanning their tail feathers. They’re demonstrating a conspicuous contempt for money by declaring, “Hey, I’m so rich (and, therefore, so worthy) that my shower curtain cost six grand—what did yours cost, peasant?”