No, Breaking Bad Is Not About Capitalism

In Breaking Bad, the main character Walter White uses his incredible chemistry knowledge to build a meth empire. We see him rise from a poor school teacher, to one of the richest and most powerful drug lords in the Southwest. And like many other crime shows, Breaking Bad portrays the drug enterprise more like business than a typical low level crime.

The theory goes that the show is at its core a critique of capitalism and the American healthcare system. The idea is that if Walt had access to free healthcare and didn’t need to worry about the cost of his medical bills, he would never have become a meth kingpin and the show wouldn’t exist.

And to an extent they are right. Walt’s cancer diagnosis is the inciting incident that leads to the events of the series, and if things were different he might never have gone down the path of Heisenberg. But I think that looking at the show this way is missing a more fundamental truth about Walt, and about character agency.

So in this video, let’s examine why Breaking Bad to me is not a critique of capitalism.

In the Pilot episode, Walt is a high school chemistry teacher with a pregnant wife and disabled son. He has to work two jobs just so they can make ends meet. He is eventually diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and given only a few years to live. Not wanting to leave his family with nothing after he dies, he decides to use his chemistry knowledge to cook meth, partnering up with Jesse Pinkman, a former student of his.

Now this introduction to the character makes it seem like his problems are entirely about his cancer diagnosis and the subsequent treatment cost. However while the diagnosis was the inciting incident that sets off the chain of events of the pilot, it’s not really his primary motivation.

Remember the money from his first cook was not actually meant for his treatment. This was money he just wanted to leave his family, as they were broke and his wife was pregnant at the time and didn’t work. He actually didn’t even tell his family about his diagnosis at first, hiding it for about a month. And even after telling his family about his cancer, Walt still did not want to get treatment.

Now part of the reason was the cost of the procedure. Walt actually did have health insurance from his job as a teacher. However his insurance would not have covered the best oncologist and treatment that they wanted, and Walt didn’t want to bankrupt themselves by going out of pocket on the procedures. However that wasn’t the primary motivation behind Walt’s decision to not do treatment.

The reason why Walt didn’t want treatment, is because he didn’t want to experience the side effects of chemotherapy and be left a husk of his former self. Walt tells a story to Junior about his father, who died of Huntington’s disease when he was very young. The only memory Walt had of his father was him sick and dying in a hospital bed, and Walt was terrified that was how he would be remembered if he did the treatment.

As we learn in the series, legacy is everything to Walt. He does not want to be perceived as weak, and this ego is what drives him throughout the series. As we see when Walt is offered a job by his former partners Gretchen and Elliot.

When Walt was in grad school, he founded a company called Grey Matter with his best friend Elliot Schwartz. The company was just the two of them at the time, but had potential to grow into something big based on their chemistry research, which had been part of a Nobel prize. However Walt had a falling out with his girlfriend at the time Gretchen, who was working alongside them as an assistant. Gretchen came from a family of money, and her wealth made Walt feel inferior to her. Again we see that it’s not money that motivates Walt, but pride. After breaking up with Gretchen, Walt sold his half of the company to Elliot for $5000 and left. Gretchen and Elliot later married, and they grew the company where it was eventually worth billions of dollars.

When they learn about Walt’s diagnosis, they offer him a job at Grey Matter which will cover his insurance costs. This was a genuine offer of friendship, as we see Gretchen crying when talking to Walt, showing how much she still cares about him. However Walt is insulted, thinking that they consider him a charity case. He refuses, and instead decides to cook meth to pay for his treatment instead of relying on a handout.

So again we see that at his core, the issue isn’t about money or healthcare. If Walt wanted his treatment paid for, he had options that didn’t involve cooking meth. Instead what Walt wanted was to be his own man and make his own living, even if doing so had its own consequences.

However while that sounds reasonable, Walt’s issues go deeper than just wanting to be self-reliant. Part of the reason why Walt refused to work for Gretchen and Elliot was because of the bitter resentment he had for them. As Grey Matter grew into a billion dollar company, Walt watched on in envy. As his own life as a school teacher turned out mediocre, he began to resent Gretchen and Elliot for their success. He even convinced himself that they had conspired to cheat him out of his own company, which is literally not true. He voluntarily left Grey Matter because of his pride, but his jealousy and ego were so high that he began to have delusions of persecution.

This is also why money isn’t even at the heart of Walt’s motivation. Early on, Walt calculates that the maximum money that he would need to leave his family to have them taken care of in perpetuity is $737,000 dollars. And while there are some setbacks along the way, he eventually achieves that and more. But even when he reaches that point, he refuses to quit cooking meth.

Though he was probably unconscious of this at first, what Walt really wanted was power. He wanted the respect and prestige of being at the top of an industry, and meth was the way for him to do that. He outright says this to Jesse after refusing a buyout offer that again would have left him with more money that he could ever need.

Now if you want to read that as a statement about capitalism or the evilness of rich people or something, you’re absolutely free to. But for what it’s worth Vince Gilligan has said that the show is not meant to be an allegory or anytime of critique, but instead the story of an individual character making individual decisions.

Now there are other aspects of the show that people read as anti-capitalism. Gus has a meth empire built on the back of a fast food chain restaurant, which some people read as a statement about fast food making communities fatter and poorer. And they think his cold business-like approach to drug dealing is a statement about how ruthless and evil business owners and CEO’s are in general.

But again this interpretation leaves out Gus’ actual motivation, which is not for profit but actually revenge for the death of his partner Max. The reason Gus built his empire was to use it as a platform from which to destroy the Cartel. Despite his wealth, Gus lived a modest and simple existence in his personal life. This was both for appearances sake, and also because he wasn’t interested in money like a businessman would be. Like Walt he wanted something more, in this case to avenge the person that he loved.

Now the point of this video isn’t to shut down discussion about the show or say what theories or interpretations are correct or not. I fully believe in the death of the author, and that the viewer is free to make any interpretation they want regardless of the author’s intent. Vince even says in this same interview that once the work is out there in the world, the viewer is free to make whatever connections they want.

So if you still think that Breaking Bad is a critique of capitalism or the US healthcare system or whatever else, I support you. Each of us is free to draw whatever meaning we want from a story like Breaking Bad. I just wanted to share my point of view that the story is about the characters’ personal flaws and motivations, rather than a bigger and more detached theme about the world at large.

However, that's just my interpretation. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and stay tuned for more Breaking Bad content, coming soon.