Rich Asshole of the Month is…Chris Brown, A Different Kind of Rich Asshole

Last month, I introduced a new segment to Working Class Economist called “Rich Asshole of the Month.” The thinking behind it is that just generally calling out rich people isn’t doing any good because the 1 percent gets to say “Well, I might be bad but I’m not the Koch Brothers bad,” and calling out an individual rich person might help explain the different ways someone can be horrible and wealthy.

Last month, I chose Mitt Romney for stashing money all over the globe WHILE running for president of the United States AND saying he doesn’t think about poor people AND making no apologies for paying a tax rate on his millions that’s less than you pay on your thousands AND failing to see the lack of patriotism in that, saying that it’s more patriotic he games the tax system than setting a good example for all Americans. This month’s asshole is (on the surface) the polar opposite of Mitt Romney: Chris Brown.

At first, they could not appear to have less in common. And that’s because they literally don’t. They’re different races, different ages, different professions, different family backgrounds, and Robototron Romney projects the exact opposite image of rageaholic Brown. But all that serves as a great case study in the different ways somebody can be a rich asshole.

As to where Romney is a rich asshole because he has allowed money to entirely distance himself from what most people are going through, elevating him to a 1 percent-ers dream life where he can’t comprehend the plight of the unemployed or working poor, Brown can’t elevate himself at all. He’s a multi-millionaire singer and actor. He sung THREE songs at the Grammys, has a bit part in the new movie “Think Like a Man, Act Like a Lady” based off the hit book, several high profile people in the R&B and hip-hop industries want his comeback so bad they’re forcing it, and yet the man has never left behind the obnoxiously conceited yet explosively insecure mentality of a true lower class asshole brat.

Whether he’s beating up on equally-insecure pop stars who pretend otherwise (of course Rihanna is seeing him under-the-radar, you think a mentally confident person would have let him off the hook so easy in the first place?) or trashing Today Show dressing rooms before ripping the shirt off his body or lashing out at people on Twitter who have the audacity not to like him, it’s as though he still doesn’t get that he has enough money to be better than this now. He’s a horrible, horrible role model for the millions of young people in minority communities (as well as just young people in general) that do genuinely look up to him. An even worse role model for them than Romney is for the millions of young people who want to forget minority communities exist.