system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If there is such a dire global shortage of helium, why do we still use it to fill up balloons?
gpt
The "helium shortage" is actually a reaction to massive helium stockpiling of the US starting with the Helium Act of 1925 for use in airships and later on as a coolant during the Cold War and the Space Race. The idea was that it may be a critical natural resource similar to oil, but the progression of technology determined that it wasn't really that important and it was decided that the billion cubic meters of the gas we had collected should be sold off.

This dramatically dropped the price of helium for decades, as the US government was selling a seemingly unlimited supply off at bargain prices. The "shortage" is that the US is coming to the end of their fire sale of helium which means the price will begin to rise to the actual cost of production, which means applications designed around the historically low cost of helium now are looking at a big price bump.