Two years of science in high school and four more in college and this little fact was either not mentioned or escaped me. Perhaps the uses of helium then was exclusively trivial and the supply was of no concern.
Maybe it's time for that to change.
"It is used as an inert shield for arc welding, to pressurize the fuel tanks of liquid fueled rockets and in supersonic windtunnels. Helium is combined with oxygen to create a nitrogen free atmosphere for deep sea divers so that they will not suffer from a condition known as nitrogen narcosis. Liquid helium is an important cryogenic material and is used to study superconductivity and to create superconductive magnets. The Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab uses large amounts of liquid helium to operate its superconductive electron accelerator."
Maybe in the defense industry or NASA. The rest of us use argon.