There’s lots of talk in these dark economic days about learning from the Great Depression. One lesson we seem to be missing centers on beefier unemployment payments to those out of work.

Consider what people losing a job got back in 1938 and 1939, the tail end of the Depression. The average weekly benefit of $10.94 in 1938 may not sound like much, but it amounted to 43 percent of the average weekly wage at the time, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. The ratio dropped slightly in 1939, to 41 percent.

The corresponding figure for 2007 was 34 percent—and it has been 35 percent or less since 2004. A difference of six or seven percentage points can mean a lot of money. If the 2007 ratio had been 41 percent instead of 34 percent, the average weekly benefit would have jumped from $288 to $347 in 2007. Over a 26-week period, that $59 difference adds up to $1,534.

It’s quite possible those relatively higher unemployment benefits in the 1930s helped lift the country out of the Depression—along with the economic engine of World War II.

The Labor Department lays out the logic of the unemployment insurance system on its Web site:

“It was created in 1935 in response to the Great Depression, when millions of people lost jobs. They couldn’t buy goods and services, which contributed to more layoffs,” the Labor Department states. “Now, as then, the program helps cushion the impact of economic downturns and brings economic stability to communities, states, and the nation by providing temporary income support for laid off workers.”

Of course, exceedingly generous unemployment payments without any strings attached or efforts to help people get back to work can backfire. People can get lazy on the dole.

But the U.S., whose unemployment benefits are among the most miserly in the developed world, seems far from that dilemma. In fact, America may be missing a chance to bolster its faltering economy by boosting those stingy jobless benefits, which are part of an overall shoddy safety net.

According to The New York Times, economist Mark Zandi estimated several years ago  that increases in unemployment benefits produced about $1.73 in additional demand for every dollar spent, while tax rebates to all citizens generated about $1.19 for every dollar spent. Reductions in tax rates produced just 59 cents per dollar.

President-elect Barack Obama appears poised to launch big public works projects akin to the New Deal spending that Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to propel the U.S. out of the Depression some 75 years ago. But as hundreds of thousands of Americans find themselves out of work these days, let’s not forget the power of generous unemployment payments.