The article explores how selfishness and altruism play a role in social welfare programs. It questions whether purely efficiency-based theories can explain why these programs exist. The research suggests that people's support for social transfers is a mix of selfishness and partial altruism, leading to more redistribution than efficiency alone would predict. However, even very altruistic individuals may limit redistribution due to potential disincentives. The study also discusses different ways to evaluate social welfare programs, including fairness criteria and inequality-averse social welfare functions. These approaches help in finding solutions that balance incentives and fairness in social transfers.