{"id":2065,"date":"2014-03-31T08:09:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T07:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charisma.local\/charisma2023\/char1smaSSL\/?post_type=markets&p=2065"},"modified":"2025-09-27T21:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T20:48:18","slug":"breaking-bad-markets-healthcare-and-drug-money","status":"publish","type":"markets","link":"https:\/\/www.journalofculturaleconomy.org\/charisma\/markets\/breaking-bad-markets-healthcare-and-drug-money","title":{"rendered":"‘BREAKING BAD\u2019: markets, healthcare and drug money"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"breaking_bad_5.08__span\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This article contains spoilers<\/i><\/p>\n

The TV series\u00a0Breaking Bad\u00a0<\/i><\/b>reached its conclusion at the end of September last year.\u00a0 This acclaimed drama has been described as: the most\u00a0revered show<\/a>\u00a0of the modern golden age of television; as\u00a0Dostoevsky in the desert<\/a>; and it has even been asked if missing it is akin to not\u00a0bothering to see Hamlet<\/a>? Commentators have praised the tight multi-layered narrative, the sophisticated characterisation and the stunning cinematic quality of the series.\u00a0 As Chris Hardwick\u00a0has said<\/a>, those of us who watched it regularly now have \u2018Breaking Bad sized holes in our souls<\/i>\u2019. \u00a0However, one aspect of the drama which has not been so widely commented on was the (often implicit) critical analysis of the role that markets play in our lives.<\/p>\n

The synopsis of the show is simple enough: an Albuquerque chemistry teacher, Walter White, is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer but has no health insurance. To pay for his treatment, provide for his family and pay for his children\u2019s college education he teams up with a former pupil, Jesse, to \u2018cook\u2019 and sell crystal meth.\u00a0 The cost of medical treatment, in a country with marketised healthcare system, is a constant and unusually overt theme throughout the series.\u00a0 Walt\u2019s first consultation with an oncologist was noted to cost $5000 and this was a fraction of the overall expense of his treatment; elsewhere he voices fears that his diagnosis would \u2018bankrupt his family<\/i>\u2019.\u00a0 This is a not unrealistic concern,\u00a0medical care is the leading cause<\/a>\u00a0of bankruptcies in the US. Later in the series Walt\u2019s brother-in-law is seriously injured and his physiotherapy treatment costs total $177,000 \u2013 an expense that his employer paid insurance will not cover,\u00a0even though he is a high ranking government official (he is an Assistant Special Agent in the Albuquerque office of the Drug Enforcement Agency). These medical crises spark a slow, but sure, slide into an ever increasing series of moral and ethical nightmares that end in tragedy with the \u2018blood money<\/a>\u2019 earned eventually offering little solace. \u00a0The repeated return to issues of marketised healthcare costs press home the point that even those with professional jobs are helpless when they\u00a0\u2018face a health care system designed to meet the needs of the wealthy, powerful, and privileged\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another way in which the role and influence of markets is developed in the series is through the focus on\u00a0the \u2018free market\u2019 of the illegal drugs trade.\u00a0 After a shaky start Walt becomes the type of entrepreneur that any capitalist would admire.\u00a0 In a validation of Walt\u2019s role,\u00a0The Economist<\/a>\u00a0boldly stated that if you are interested in the dynamics of modern business practices it is possible to save the $90,000 fees of a Harvard MBA and simply buy the \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d box-set. \u00a0Walt follows a classic entrepreneurial model: he innovates in the production process, producing a crystal meth of unrivalled purity; his product is distinctively branded by its \u00a0characteristic blue tint (something that apparently\u00a0real life drug dealers<\/a>\u00a0are now copying); and he amply demonstrates the forces of\u00a0\u2018creative destruction\u2019<\/a>\u00a0by violently eliminating all those he comes into conflict with, whether they be rivals, distributors or even his own partners.<\/p>\n

The whole series can be read as a biting critique not only of the illegal drug trade but also of the world of commercial activity driven by the need for increasing profits no matter what the human cost.\u00a0 Crystal meth production is represented as a business that is irrevocably entangled with\u00a0\u2018legitimate\u2019 commercial concerns<\/a>\u00a0and which, to all intents and purposes, is part of our economic system.\u00a0 In one scene, Walt menacingly explains to his wife, Skyler, what would happen if he stopped making meth \u2013 \u2018A business big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ goes belly up<\/i>\u2019.\u00a0 In another episode, an associate, Todd (known to fans as the \u2018Murder Spock<\/a>\u2019) justifies why, despite bringing in tens of millions in cash they need to continue making crystal: \u2018No matter how much you got, how do you turn your back on more?<\/i>\u2019 \u00a0The writers of “Breaking Bad” often temper the most brutal episodes with more subtle critical touches. \u00a0Thus as the camera pans around the apartment of one of Walt\u2019s murder victims the shot lingers momentarily, no doubt ironically, on two book covers \u2013 \u2018The Collected Works of Marx and Engels\u2019 and \u2018The Fundamentals of Marxism\u2013Leninism\u2019.<\/p>\n