Jeffrey Hillman's boots and why liberalism is doomed to fail

Right now, the country's most famous pair of boots is the pair that NYPD Officer Lawrence DePrimo bought to give to Jeffrey Hillman, a bare-footed homeless man (photo).

Now, just days later, Jeffrey Hillman is again going barefoot.  Mr. Hillman explained in an interview with the NY Times:

“Those shoes are hidden. They are worth a lot of money,” Mr. Hillman said in an interview on Broadway in the 70s. “I could lose my life."

One has to conclude that charity is difficult.  Officer DePrimo may spend his days pounding the streets of New York City but even he finds his efforts to help the homeless stymied by the complexity of their situation.  This just makes ever less plausible the claims of liberals that welfare state bureaucrats have any insight at all into how to help the poor.