Are they creating a shortage intentionally to increase the value of the helium that is still to be extracted from the remaining natural gas? Is it really any big deal at all?
I think the conspiracy stuff is misplaced, but the way we are managing helium might be a big deal.
Should the government be bearing the expense of stockpiling helium? The law in question was enacted in 1996 and was intended to get rid of that expense. The expectation was that the public sector would maintain their own supplies.
Possibly there have been some miscalculations with whether this plan was a good idea. A few people have written books on the topic.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead. William Lloyd Garrison.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. Frederick Douglass