The average citizen does not know to consider the subsequent order affects of a decision. This has always been true. It is for the politicians to do this job, but they are failing.
A good example of such iatrogenic results can be seen in the “ban the box” measures. This was a good faith attempt to get people with largely unimportant criminal histories back into the workforce. By “banning the box” (removing the ability to ask somebody if they have a record) the issue was made worse. The outcome was that minorities were being hired less because, without the ability to ascertain the criminal behaviour of a prospective employee, people would just guess. Any individual in any group which on average is more highly involved in crime is unfairly penalised.

Good intentions are not enough.