“Regulatory capture” does not mean “the concept of big businesses owning regulators”. It is, rather, a specific proposed explanation for why this takes place, and why it is likely to take place: namely, people working for and invested in a regulated industry have a greater interest in the outcome of regulation than other citizens do, and therefore are likely to expend more effort to influence the regulators.
That’s not how I was using the term. I was using it as a label for a fact—that over time, the industry being regulated by an agency tends to eventually take over that agency. Public choice economics, whatever it’s limitations, is trying to explain this fact. Note that my usage is consistent with wikipedia (link in parent and grandparent):
In economics, regulatory capture occurs when a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead advances the commercial or special interests that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.
For public choice theorists, regulatory capture occurs because groups or individuals with a high-stakes interest in the outcome of policy or regulatory decisions can be expected to focus their resources and energies in attempting to gain the policy outcomes they prefer, while members of the public, each with only a tiny individual stake in the outcome, will ignore it altogether.
That’s not how I was using the term. I was using it as a label for a fact—that over time, the industry being regulated by an agency tends to eventually take over that agency. Public choice economics, whatever it’s limitations, is trying to explain this fact. Note that my usage is consistent with wikipedia (link in parent and grandparent):
(emphasis mine)