Capitalism and Intention

The Laissez-Faire dimension of Capitalism has its roots in Smith's thesis that the General Good is most effectively promoted by the exclusive focus of each on one's own Self-Interest.  But, despite a continued uncritical acceptance of that formulation, nothing remotely approaching an adequate proof of it has ever been advanced.  Now, one ground for doubting it is that it is internally incoherent.  For, the Individualism that it expresses is an application of Atomism, but Atomism recognizes no General Good other than an aggregate of Individual Goods.  Bentham might accept the latter, but Smith's Whole is greater than the sum of its Parts, as is entailed in his concept of Division of Labor. Another ground for doubting it is that it entails a rejection of a proposition that is elsewhere vital to Smith.  The rejected proposition is that of causal efficacy between an Intention, i. e. to promote the General Good, e. g. through benevolence, and an outcome, i. e. achieving the General Good.  However, that causal efficacy is vital to any supposition of an equivalence between Self-Interested motivation and the successful outcome of that goal.  In other words, a fundamental problem for Smith is that of a lacuna between his Morality and his Economics system based on improved efficiency.  Such a lacuna renders Capitalism susceptible to a deus ex machina supplement, whether an Invisible Hand or the deity of Calvinism, for example.