Gone Bad

Why does hand lotion have an expiry date? Am I going to get a rash if I apply some Intensive Care Hand Therapy that's been around a few years? It's amazing to me that we fear the effect of massive amounts of non-degrading hydrocarbons in our landfills, but we make damn sure the chemicals we apply to our skin are fresh.

I suspect this phenomenon, which is recent, has two influencing factors: one, the unfortunate faithlessness and litigious nature of our society; and b, the impetus to keep the commerce cycle short. This latter concept is the same as building in defects that limit the utility of electronic equipment, and also making it difficult for authorized (!) small-electronics-repair shops to stay in business; postmodern consumers are trained to buy cheap radios that break in a year, and then to just buy another one. And so on.

There's no dairy or meat in this inorganic product. How can it go bad? Can't I just give it a good shake in a couple years when I remember that I still have it? I've still got the same jar of Vaseline that I had when I was a little kid. It's just not something I need that often. Why throw it out? I'll take my chances.