Brett Cooper — Americans Stopped Waiting for the Government and Started Taking Care of Each Other

Okay, guys, there is something truly amazing going on. Strangers are pitching in to take care of other strangers resulting in literally millions of dollars in GoFundMe's. It is an incredible hopeful side of the internet, but we have to be real here because it is leaving a lot of people asking, "Why does it feel like it falls on strangers to step in and take care of people who are in need when we are being taxed to high heaven every single month?"

And that most of the people being helped are ones who spent decades pinching pennies and contributing into social security hoping that at the end of their life it would take care of them. It is a screwed up system that at least there is a glimmer of positivity here. Now, before we dive into these stories and why they make me cry every single day when I watch them, make sure that you like this video, subscribe to the channel if you have not already.

And if you want even more content, head on over to cooperconfidential.com. That is my subscriber platform where I upload Q&A's and vlogs every single week. So, go check that out, cooperconfidential.com. And if you just want to know when we upload videos here on the channel, make sure to ring that notification bell. All right, so, the stories that I'm talking about today might be ones that you've seen before because they are incredibly viral, which is really great.

But, the formula is really simple. Somebody is out in the world, they come across usually an elderly person who is in need of help. Maybe they are a senior that is struggling to work, but obviously is still showing up to their job. They make a post about it usually on TikTok. These posts garner millions of views, a GoFundMe is created, and then within days these individuals have enough money to retire comfortably. The most recent one that inspired me to make this video was from my favorite creator on TikTok.

Like, this is where I go to have faith in humanity, and that creator is SB Mowing. So, the owner, Spencer, has had a lawn business since he was in college, and he offers free lawn cleanup to people in need, whether it is an elderly person, a family that's down on their luck, who they just can't keep up, whatever it may be. He offers them free lawn care. He makes a long video about it. It's often like an hour and a half long video that he posts on YouTube.

He does a shortened version on TikTok, tells their story online. He gives them a sense of dignity back with how their home looks, how they're presenting themselves to the world, and then he moves on to the next. And usually with these homes and these families they They nominated by, you know, neighbors, friends, families, even passersby, or sometimes even the police will, you know, be called to a home saying, "Hey, this home is, you know, really messy and unkempt or angry at the person who lives there."

The cops know to call Spencer and say, "Hey, could you help this person out so that they don't get in trouble and they stop making people upset, whatever it may be." But every once in a while, one of these stories will really hit home, like this one from last week. Just watch. >> I have a mess. >> Do you? >> I'm not doing very well. >> I'm sorry about that. Let's see what you got going on. Whoa. So, this is your yard you're dealing with back here.

>> Yeah, and it goes all the way back behind the rock. >> When's the last time that was mowed, you think? >> Last year, last fall. I'm kind of embarrassed by it all. >> Well, this is nothing that we can't fix up and get looking good for you. >> And I had some bad people take advantage of me. Uh a tree service. >> What tree service? Here in Wichita? >> Yeah, I had to put a $2,000 deposit down and they never showed up.

They had one excuse after the other and so they took my $2,000. We were told he had pancreatic cancer and he died 90 days later. >> Oh, wow. I'm really sorry to hear that. Can I give you a hug? >> that. Sure. Thank you so much. >> Hey everyone, Spencer here with SB Mowing and this one started in a way I've never had a job come in before. I got an email from a guy named Zach who'd given Debbie an Uber ride and helped carry her groceries all the way around to the back door.

And that's when he saw the yard. The grass was almost as tall as he was back there and there was just stuff all over the driveway. He knew she needed a lot of help, but he was a few weeks out from a knee surgery, so he reached out to me instead. When I got there and met Debbie, she told me she was embarrassed by how things had gotten, but once she started explaining the circumstances, it all made sense. >> You guys worked so hard.

>> Cuz I was at my lowest. At my lowest. >> Well, we're happy to get you out of that low spot. I've actually got um a little bit of another surprise for you. >> Oh. >> So, I run a nonprofit. It's called SB Mowing Forward. And it's kind of an extension of what I already do. We decided that we wanted to pay your rent. >> Oh my >> Your last 3 months of rent that you're backed up on. >> You don't really have to do that because you've done so much for me already.

>> We want to and we've got we've got lots of people that are donating to the nonprofit and this is what they do it for to help people like you out. >> every video is just incredible. This one in particular, obviously, we're going to talk about why, but this man just has a heart of gold. He shows up, no questions asked, there's no judgement, his dad often comes, he's so kind, he does an incredible job, it's so detailed, he gets their yard to a place where they, you know, hopefully will be able to maintain it or be able to put a little money towards maintaining it so it's not just this like behemoth of a problem that they're staring at every single day.

He's just incredible. And you saw I was tearing up, I tear up at everything these days, thank you post partum, but I came across this video last week and I was just weeping watching this video and so were 25 million other people. That is how many people just on TikTok alone watched that video. And people just across the internet, they love what Spencer does with his nonprofit. They were so taken by the Uber driver who went out of his way to help Debbie and then suddenly also everybody had beef with this scummy tree service in Wichita, but Spencer's help did not stop and it never just stops with cleaning up somebody's yard.

Because after almost every video, if there is a person in the home with this, you know, a compelling story and they need assistance, he creates a GoFundMe, which is what he did for Debbie. And at the time of my recording this video, that GoFundMe has reached more than 680,000 dollars, which you can see right here. Unequivocally, that is life-changing money. And as I was spending a few minutes scrolling on the GoFundMe, seeing the comments and the notes from people, what stood out to me the most is that you look at the GoFundMe, and it's not like, you know, a few wealthy people jumped in and donated 100,000 dollars here, 10,000 dollars here, 20,000, whatever it might be, which you do often see on GoFundMe's.

This GoFundMe was created by modest donations, you know, 25 dollars here, 10 dollars here, 5 dollars here. It's people simply coming together to take care of an elderly woman. Whatever extra they had laying around, that is what they gave her, and it grew to be close to a million dollars, close to 700,000 dollars. And her response when Spencer told her was just incredible, and he filmed it and posted it as well. >> So, I started a GoFundMe.

>> Oh, for me? >> for you. >> Oh my goodness. >> Yeah, where people could donate, and >> You already helped me. >> Well, I wanted to help you a little bit more. And so, I started this, and this is a screenshot of what it looks like. We've raised just over 400,000 dollars for you. >> No way. >> Yeah, it's right there. >> [laughter] >> Oh my god. I can't believe it. How can people be so generous to a stranger? >> Over 13,000 people donated.

>> I was so thankful with the yard being cleaned up. I mean, it's just >> it's incredible. I cry every single time I see one of these. I cry when I see the initial video, I cry when I see the video after it. And before anybody comments, because this is a normal concern, I just want to say Spencer is a professional now after doing, you know, hundreds of these videos. He gets it all put into trust for these individuals.

He has vetted financial advisers that he works with, so no more tree scamming is going to happen to Debbie, hopefully, if everything goes according to plan. But, the comments, they are always just so positive and amazing. Somebody said you should probably re-upload the videos all blurry, because we're just crying. The other part of this story, and I want to wrap it up kind of with a bow with this, is that Spencer went out and found the man who brought him to Debbie.

He found Zach, the Uber driver who made all of this happen and he amplified his story as well. Zach, the Uber driver, was having knee surgeries you heard in the video. His wife has been hospitalized with a serious injury and has been unable to work. So, he picked up the second job of driving Uber and then his older daughter, he's a father of eight, his oldest daughter has leukemia that she's battling and even though he has all of this awful awfulness going on in his life, he still went out of his way to help somebody in need.

And so, all of our Spencer's videos, people were commenting and saying "Thank you Zach, the Uber driver, please come to the front of the room. We want to bless you, too, sir." Another person said, "Let's do something for Zach as well." And so, Spencer made sure that the internet could help him as well and his GoFundMe now is almost at 200k. I mean, it's it's just remarkable, but guys, it is also only one story. Cuz this is a trend online now.

You know, Spencer and his global audience have also raised almost a million dollars for another elderly woman that he helped a couple of months ago. And I know that Spencer is not going to stop there. He's going to do it again, just like I know that I'm going to feed my dog, Sunday, again and again. And that's because Sunday's for dogs dog food is just different. They start with more than 80% all-natural meats and then, the last 20%, they finish with superfoods like kale, ginger, and blueberries.

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I think it's important to point out that while Spencer and SB Mowing, you know, is a big thing now, they have a big YouTube channel and a big Tik Tok, it's not just these big creators, these hope core creators, non-profit creators, whatever you want to call them. I think that they're called kindness influencers. It's not just them who make this possible. More often than not, it's actually just random people posting the stories of folks that they meet in their day-to-day life.

For example, this was also a couple of months ago, a girl saw an elderly woman working at AMC. She was pushing a janitor cart around. She was obviously having trouble standing up and walking. She posted that on Tik Tok. She created a GoFundMe for this woman and raised over $140,000 so that she could retire. There's another story of a man who also raised $140,000 for an elderly Walmart worker he met, a man who was 82 years old and still working at Walmart.

And then, this next one, it is possibly my personal favorite story. But, this woman set up a GoFundMe after having a sweet interaction with her Domino's delivery driver. And so, the story is that this woman and her husband had ordered a few pizzas on a busy Friday night, and along with their order, they had asked for one of those big liters of Coke. But, apparently, that location of Domino's had run out of the soda.

So, the store was trying to get a hold of her. The delivery driver was calling her and saying, "I'm so sorry, we can't get the soda." But, they were not able to get her on the phone in time. So, the delivery driver had to leave to deliver the pizza, but he felt so bad about it that he stopped on his way to get her a soda on his own dime. He literally stopped in the middle of his delivery, went into a 7-Eleven, whatever it is, and picked up the soda that she wanted.

Just watch their interaction. >> The voicemail just popped up. I didn't see a phone call before that. I'm so sorry about that. >> Uh >> Uh we's we's out of diet Cokes. >> Oh, okay. >> I stopped at the store though, so >> Oh, you did not have to do that. >> Uh that's okay. >> Did you really? >> Yeah, that's all right. >> Oh, man. Hold on now. >> Well, do you have a way I can I can >> Add add more to your tip cuz you deserve more than that.

I don't have any cash on me is my problem. >> Oh, don't worry about that. That's fine. 660, that's a good tip. >> No. >> The store is right next to ours. >> Yeah. >> So, I just >> Listen, I appreciate that very much. >> Yeah, that's okay. >> Uh can I If I call into the store, can they take more on on that on that tip? I I just want I wish I had cash for you. >> Oh, you don't need to. That's a good tip. >> All right.

What's your >> And I'll remember Mine's Dan. >> Dan? I'm I'm Brian. I appreciate you. You're You're at this store up on uh Maple Grove? >> Yeah. Call them Tell them that Dan, he's a great driver. >> I'm going to, Dan. I appreciate you very much. >> 14 years I've worked here. I'm retiring in 26 days. >> Oh my god, it's getting blurry again. All of these videos get so blurry. It must be a TikTok problem. It's definitely not me.

Okay, so again, the video is posted. It's super simple. It's really sweet. She's not, you know, meaning anything by it. She just says, "This was such a sweet act of kindness." Like, it's rare to see somebody go out of their way like this, which is true. Like, it's crazy that this is a thing. Then, obviously, there's the element of the story of this is an elderly man who is still working. He's so close to retirement.

This is his second job, which she talks about. It's kind of sad that in our society, you know, somebody in the service industry stops and goes above and beyond for a customer. I feel like since COVID, the service industry is just like, ah, it's like pulling teeth. It's just unpleasant and it's terrible. And I feel like I could say that cuz I worked in the service industry and I saw how angry people were and customers were angry, people in the service industry, it's just awful, awful, awful.

So, it makes sense that this small act of kindness stuck with people. And so, again, racked up almost a million likes on her video. She created a GoFundMe and she was able to raise almost $200,000 to help him in his retirement after working at this second job as a delivery driver for the last 14 years. And what is even sweeter about the story is that at first when they created the GoFundMe, a few people donated and they I think had raised $240 and they were so excited about just that alone.

So, they went into the store, they got cash for a tip for him, and they gave him the little GoFundMe gift card with $240 on it. And everybody was so excited. They were like, this is so sweet. They were posting videos saying, "Thank you, everybody. This is amazing." And then they went home and there was $1,000. And then a couple of hours later, there was $5,000. And then $10,000. It just kept growing. They were all shocked.

And then by the end of it, you know, 26 days later when Dan was retiring, they had raised almost $100,000 and they threw him this huge retirement party. GoFundMe brought in one of those big checks. Like, it's just so incredible. And I love these videos and I hope you guys do, too. And I bring all of this up and I wanted to do a video on it because I think it's such a good reminder that there are good people out there.

There are good things that happen online even though the majority of content that I do is I'm ranting about things, I'm talking about crazy people, and the majority of things that you see online that you interact with are outrage content just because that's how the algorithm works, but there are still amazing things. And I think it's important to recognize that. It's refreshing to see among so much chaos and hate. But, because it's me, we do have to talk about the bad side of this because obviously, even though I'm excited about this and I love going on there and donating to these GoFundMe's and it's just so amazing to see.

Obviously, it's still got me thinking about how much money we hand over to the government every single month expecting them, actually believing their promise that they are going to take care of people like this, especially those who are in their old age. You know, time and time again, people say we need to vote for expanded social services, we need health care, we need higher taxes so that we can take care of those who are needy, and yet obviously, the system does not work because there are so many stories just like this.

And I mean, who is surprised because the government cannot even keep track of the money that we are paying them to do this. For example, just want to This is like the opposite of Hope Corps, this is black pill. But last year, for example, the government collected over $5 trillion. Everybody's like gawking at Elon Musk being a trillionaire. Okay, the government took $5 trillion from us last year, and $186 billion of that was misplaced.

Oopsie. Oopsie. It was misallocated. They don't know where it went. Oops, they made a little oopsie with $186 billion. And you should know which agencies had the greatest errors of misplacement OR LOST MONEY. WOW, Medicare and Medicaid, which you can see on this graph. Those are the services that a lot of these elderly people rely on. So, I say all of this because even though, you know, universal health care and universal basic income and free everything, free this, you know, whatever the Mamdanis of the world are saying and promising, I think it is inconsistent It's dishonest to say that that does not sound good.

Like obviously, that sounds great if it worked. It feels good to promote that and dream about that, but I'm sorry, how could you even begin to trust that the government would pull it off? How could you even fathom that they would disperse, dispense our money in the ways that they promised? Because they already are incapable of doing that. They are telling us, they are showing us every single year that they can't. Plus, adding, you know, fuel to the fire, social security, which is supposed to help the elderly, that's running out supposedly by 2033.

They're already going to have to start making cuts. I think that they are speculating that the cuts are going to be like 22% which is already insane. Like social security as it stands now is barely enough for people to get by. I think that it is like $25,000 a year and that's before health insurance is taken out of it. So a 22% cut is going to be devastating for those who paid into it and are relying on it or expecting that it's going to be there in their old age.

Now add to that the government apparently borrowed money from the big social security account in the form of bonds which they are, yes, they are paying back but that means that that account is not growing in the same way it would have if they had left it just untouched. So like the entire thing is just a mess. They designed the system with rainbows and sunshine and free things and oh, we're taking care of you and it is simply not working.

And so instead we have stories like the ones we saw today where you have elderly people who are not even able to afford taking care of their small lawns, having to push a trash cart at a movie theater when they can barely walk, working second jobs late into their 70s. Like do you not see the irony in that? And yet you have half the country that like turning a blind eye to it. They can't see that the system isn't working.

They're like we just have to try it again BETTER. HASN'T BEEN DONE CORRECTLY YET. NO, I think it has. I think we have tried a million different ways. Obviously, it's not working. And I know that there are people out there who will say, well, you know, it is good for people to work. Maybe they don't even need to retire. They should get out of the house. It probably helps them socialize and stay young. And you know, for some people that is true.

Like I remember working at Trader Joe's with, you know, jovial grandparents who just wanted a second job. When I was working as a waitress in Boise, there was an older woman. I think she was probably like 80 years old who was the bartender there and she did it because she loved it. She like knew all the customers. She had such a great time. That is a separate thing than what we were talking about today. Those are people that wanted to be there.

That is not the case for a lot of these individuals. And I know that these stories are, you know, hopeful and happy. That's why I wanted to share them today but also on the flip side it does infuriate me. But the good thing is even with bills and responsibilities of their own, regular people, normal Americans keep stepping up and doing it themselves completely outside of this government system. You know, I I think an incredible number to look at is that charitable giving grew 6% in 2025, thanks to a good stock market, aka people were making more money and they felt more inclined to give.

Imagine that. And so, imagine if we're wanting to, you know, have feel-good, fuzzy feelings and good ideas about taking care of people in need, imagine what we could all do with lower taxes, more money back in our pockets, back in people's hands, and letting us do what we actually believe could help. Instead of just sitting on our hands and hoping that maybe the government will, hoping that maybe one day they'll get it right.

Okay, guys, there is something maybe I should do some Oops. Okay.