The problem is that people are giving and voting based on their feelings rather than trying to understand the impacts of these things. IMO, the reason why corporations win over the people is that they actually bother to do this due diligence. I'm sure that Pfizer made sure that their lobbyists were doing a good job ensuring that the CARE act would favorable to them. On the other hand, housing first advocates have been cheering for wasteful projects like $1.7 million public toilets until tabloids started pointing out how ridiculous it was.
I think this is a generalisation, but I broadly agree. I don't think anyone has solved this problem, though. You can get analytical people to do this calculus, but they would have always done that. You can't get everyone to do it. The only effective solution to this is a cult of personality, where people get a brand around doing good things, and everyone flings money their way.
Like anything large-scale that doesn't have measurable outcomes, this is highly fakeable.
