Hamor and his son Shekem needed to convince the men of their city to undergo mass circumcision — an extraordinary demand. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 34:21) preserves the sales pitch they delivered at the city gate.
"These men are friendly with us; and they may dwell in the land and do business in it; and the land, behold, it is broad in limits before them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and give our daughters to them."
The economic argument
Notice what Hamor does not mention. He does not tell the city that his son has fallen in love with Dinah, that Shekem is desperate to marry her, that the whole scheme exists for one young man's desire. Instead he frames it as trade policy. The land is broad. These people are useful. Intermarry with them. Do business with them.
The rabbis noticed this omission. Hamor was willing to ask his entire city to accept a painful and dangerous procedure, but he hid the real reason. When a leader asks a community to bear a cost without disclosing the true reason, that is a small corruption even when dressed up as economics.
And there was another deception running the other way. Simeon and Levi would use the same pain as a weapon. Two corruptions were layered into the same moment.
The takeaway: when communal sacrifice is demanded, the demand should name its true cause — or the sacrifice curdles into something else.