I linked to Aaron McKenzie’s disentanglement of self-interest and greed here.
In this post, Arnold Kling recommends reading an essay called Capitalism and the Jewish Intellectuals. In it, he writes, the authors believe intellectuals are hostile to capitalism because of this entanglement of self-interest and greed. They interpret “incentives matter” as “greed drives capitalism.”
So, they recommend a way to get intellectuals over that hump. Kling poses their recommendation in the form of a Q&A:
Q: How would you break down that hostility to capitalism?
A: By de-emphasizing “Incentives matter” and instead emphasizing that “unintended consequences matter.” That is the message of Adam Smith. It is the message of Hayek. Once we embed people in complex economic and political systems, selfish intentions can turn out well (because of competition), and good intentions can turn out badly (because of imperfect knowledge).
Though, based on Aaron’s advice, I would reword part of the answer to:
…self-interested intentions can turn out well (because of competition)