the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Nov 24, 2025
More and more families in the U.S. have been falling behind on their utility bills. Six million households, or nearly one in twenty, have been sent to collections, and another eight million households are close to it, according to the Century Foundation.
The average past-due balance in the three-month period of April-June 2025 was $789, or more than three months’ combined gas and electricity cost for U.S. households. Compared with the same three-month period last year, the past-due amount has increased about 10%.
That increase more or less mirrors the steep increase in gas and electricity prices. Utility companies have jacked up rates by 12% between April–June 2024 and April–June 2025. Being so expensive, utility bills rank among the top monthly expenses for U.S. families, approaching rent or home mortgage payments and auto loan payments. It will get worse as winter approaches. Experts estimate that average heating costs will rise to as much as $1,000 this season.
Utilities are supposedly regulated, but state regulatory agencies allow practically every rate increase the companies request. In 2024, the operating revenues of investor-owned electric companies in the U.S. rose to more than 403 billion dollars, for a profit of nearly 55 billion dollars.
Like other necessities such as housing, food and transportation, gas and electricity are used to rob the working population to feed the sky-high profits of the capitalist class.