[nradov]

Helium isn't really a resource that speculators can sit on. We get it as a byproduct of natural gas production and no one is going to stop extracting natural gas just to save helium for the future. And once you have helium it's expensive to store.

[bumholio]

Then... how do you propose to conserve it? If you can't speculate it, then by definition you can't ration it.

(By the way, if you read the article, it nicely explains how the US Helium reserve works and how it has been dismantled in recent years; so you can in fact store huge amounts of helium, should it ever make economic sense to do so).

[nradov]

I am aware of how the US helium reserve works. Something like that can only practically be done by a government which doesn't care much about costs. And it has a significant leakage rate, so helium is more like a perishable commodity than something that can be stored indefinitely. Ultimately we can't really conserve helium, but we can avoid wasting it on frivolous things.

[bumholio]

Again, if we can't conserve it, it's impossible to waste it. It's a logical contradiction. It's like wind power, you either tap it and use it or not, either way it's gone.

The fact that it's difficult (impossible) to store helium long term is an argument against government intervention because it disrupts present consumption for no clear reason and with meager future benefits.