Yeah, someone who says the us economy has been a big scam since 1914, we should all go to gold. You just have to laugh. I feel sorry for him. Yes, there will be depressions and growth spurts in your life, if you are fortunate to live long enough. You can pick one of them and claim that your bizarro econ theories are true, but regardless of being on gold or off it, there will be periods of bust, boom, and depressions. They happened without us being on gold, and happened with us being on gold. so what does being on gold fix?
Generally I don't talk to anyone about gold-standards unless they can also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a bi-metallic standard. That is my 'shibboleth' for determining if they have knowledge or not.
If they don't, I send them off to think about the bi-metallic standard.