Romney takes question on corporate greed from ‘Occupy’ protester

Romney asked a question in response: “Where do you think corporation profit goes?”

{mosads}Romney pushed back on the audience member’s response that the profit goes to shareholders, arguing that there is not “something else out there that we can grab money from … that doesn’t involve people.”

When the audience member apparently moved to object, Romney stopped him.

“You’ve had your turn, now it’s my turn. First of all, you’re right, it goes to dividends, which is owners. They’re not the 1 percent,” Romney said, referring to the “1 percent” protested by the Occupy movement, which is self-identified as a movement for the “99 percent” frustrated by corporate greed.

“When a business has profits you can do good things,” Romney said, identifying retirement plans such as 401ks.

“The only entities that pay taxes are people, so corporations are collections of people,” Romney continued.

If you can come up with a better system, let me know, Romney said. “Until then, I’m in favor of the one that was promoted by the founders of this country,” he said.

Members of the Occupy movement have occasionally interrupted various campaign events with “human mic checks” rather than by asking question when called upon.

A woman introducing herself as Asian-American later asked Romney not to say “degrading things” about China and brought up the concern about corporate greed.

“Hey, be quiet,” McCain told the original questioner, who began to speak again without a microphone.

–This post was updated at 3:05 p.m.