When should I NOT build Social Programs...

If you are berlow 50% spending levels and they aren't necessary for morale or influence #'s then it is a good time not to build them as they have maintenance totals. I usually start by building the social programs that have no upkeep or boost my economy 1st and only build morale only or non-economy projects if I need to boost that particular area.

Speaking of which...is there a major problem when a planet's expenses exceed its income? Indicitive of a bigger problem, or nothing to worry about?

I have a planet in my current game that exceeds the income by, oh, about 100 bc.

That's a good question - I haven't found a good answer yet. I find on the bigger planets anything that boosts economy/morale is worth it's upkeep. On my smaller worlds sometimes I skimp especially on shipyard type stuff, sometimes on research buildings, but I usually put news networks everywhere. they're pretty cheap to build, and provide a lot of benefits for only 2 upkeep. Having a good trade economy will allow you to support more buildings, playing in hostile galaxy where frieghter die alot, I try to keep my overhead low. But on the big juicy planets, build everything you can I would say. I'd be curious to see more data on this - economic output of different planets with different levels of infrastructure...

The game seems to be designed around not building all improvements on all planets. In fact I think a lot of them are not necessary, and even are detrimental to your economy.

olaf

Yeah, I kind of had that feeling too. I when I start getting the ability to build enhancements that require 3 bc maintenance, I tend to stop building them

My rule of thumb is that I don't build anything that has less than a 10-20% bonus to either the economy, morale, (or research if I'm lagging behind). I usually don't build the really high end research facilities on more than a few planets though. I only rarely build influence boosting buildings on alot of my colonies, since you get enough influence boosts from the high end technologies.