This is a feature. The thing is, when you research a new project, say a better research center, *all* of your planets with research centers begin upgrading to the new version. With a large empire, if social production behaved the same as miliatary, that could result in your economy going for +200 to -1000. Sure, the present system does waste the money, but by eliminating that fluctuation the player is more easily able to balance the economy. In contrast, miliatary production is initiated by the player, so while it can cause the same problems, the player is forced to be paying attention to the production and, unless hes new to the game, will be keeping an eye on his economy.
In the current version, the best workaround is to set the social spending slider to zero, and use production focus to provide social production on planets which need it. You lose a few bc per planet, but in some circumstances can save far more bc over your entire empire.
In the upcoming version, perhaps in the betas, social production will be handled differently. This is discussed in various forum threads, search will turn them up.
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