Negative Numbers and Inefficiency

[Hawkeye_td]

I usually play the Gaians, and I have found optimizing social engineering to be quite the trick. I almost always find myself using democratic politics for the growth bonus, but then I do not know what to do with the economics. When I want to have a population boom, I obviously switch to planned, but in the mean time, I cannot deside whether it is worth it to take the growth hit to switch to green.
I already have +4 efficiency, and if negative numbers are not allowed, it would seem that this is the maximum desirable efficiency rating. On the other hand, I have done a little experimenting, and it appears that in some circumstances, having a +6 efficiency rating will help. I have other experiments that, oddly enough, contradict this fact.
Personally, I do not think the extra +2 planet will outweigh the -2 growth (at least the way I play), so whether I shall actually get an extra efficiency bonus is the main deciding factor in whether I switch to green now.
Does anyone have any insight to offer? Are efficiency values of higher than +4 useful? Thanks in advance for all your help!

[Aredhran]

+4 EFFIC "Paradigm Economy" allows you to freely allocate your energy without penalty.

However, your rating also affects the number of drones created by inefficiency (number of bases, and distance from HQ), so a +6 can help lessen that problem if you have a large number of cities and/or they are very spread out.

Aredhran

[VoodooChild]

Let us keep in mind that for city inefficiency calculations that have creches your total would be a +8 Eff. under Demo/Green, Not real practical unless you have a huge far flung empire.

I wouldn't worry about your Pop rating since by mid game the best method of growth is the pop boom. Run a couple of turns under Demo/Plan/Creche and you'll have maxed to your potential, and it wont matter what your pop rating is after that.