The Normalization of Harm in Profit-Driven Business

Harm isn't a behaviour that occurs out of the blue but rather justified, and driven from human behaviour through repeated justification, language, and institutional decision making. Harm justified through business logic captures a reality of businesses prioritizing profits at the expense of workers, communities and the environment.  This behaviour causes human suffering to be normalized not because it is hidden but rather made necessary. Unethical practices now become even more acceptable and harder to turn away. 

When economic growth and shareholder returns are prioritized above the health, dignity and safety of individuals, harm gets even easier to justify. Students are often taught to enhance shareholder value as the primary goal of a firm. Decisions are evaluated based on growth, efficiency and returns often detached from the people and communities affected by them which reduces human impact to numbers. Within this framework, harm is not seen as failure of ethics but as a terrible outcome of success. Normalization now occurs when harmful practices are repeated so often they start to seem normal or even necessary. Media narratives, advertising and political lobbying play roles in shaping public perception, often framing profit driven decisions as inevitable for progress or economic survival. 

Fast fashion clearly shows how harm becomes routine, justified, and invisible. Low wages and unsafe working conditions but none of that matters to the corporation as that is acceptable within the business model. It shows how harm becomes normalized when exploitation is embedded in everyday practices. Those low prices lead to high volume sales along with a rapid production cycle which is the base line to why harm occurs. 

Companies like Shein leave an environmental harm on our planet solely coming from its fast fashion. Shein leaves about 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. These types of companies have established business models on manufacturing clothing at high speeds and volumes, allowing them to sell trendy products at incredibly low cost. These cheap costs however, are not accidental, they are the result of underpaid labour, long working hours and poor employment regulations within global supply chains as well as severe environmental damage from overproduction and textile waste. Despite this, the harm caused by rapid fashion is rarely described as unethical. Instead it is defended using terms like affordability, accessibility and customer desire. By presenting exploitation and environmental degradation as inescapable tradeoffs for low pricing and rapid expansion, businesses normalize harm as a necessary cost of doing business. The distance between consumers and production further obscures accountability, making misery easier to overlook while profits grow. 

Fast fashion is not an isolated failing, but rather a reflection of a larger commercial culture that consistently favours harm within its production. When exploitation and environmental degradation are presented as necessary costs of expansion, harm becomes ingrained in what we consider "normal" corporate practices. The claim of efficiency, affordability, and consumer demand serves to explain acts that would otherwise be considered unethical, allowing companies to separate themselves from responsibility while still benefiting financially. Over time, this normalization dampens public outrage and diverts attention away from the mechanisms that enable harm in the first place.

Business decisions influence people's lives, working conditions, and ecosystems, and accepting exploitation as unavoidable simply perpetuates systems that profit a few at the expense of many. If we want a future based on accountability and social responsibility, we must challenge the profit first mindset that governs so much of today's business world. Refusing to accept harm as "just the way business works" is the first step toward envisioning and demanding something better.

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References

Rajvanshi, A., Caldwell, J., Johnson, A. D., & Kardashian, K. (2023, January 17). Shein's Fast Fashion Domination Comes at a High Cost | TIME. Time Magazine. Retrieved January 21, 2026, from https://time.com/6247732/shein-climate-change-labor-fashion/

Review, D. (2025, March 3). How unethical practice is normalized - Dialogue Review. Dialogue Review. https://dialoguereview.com/how-unethical-practice-is-normalized/ 

Directory, S. (2025, January 27). How does fast fashion contribute to overconsumption? → Question. Fashion → Sustainability Directory. https://fashion.sustainability-directory.com/question/how-does-fast-fashion-contribute-to-overconsumption/