Does removing a money cube from a system reduce income?

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Yes — returning a Money Population Cube to your Money Population Track covers a square and lowers your highest exposed (Income) value, reducing your Money Production for Upkeep. Your Income for a Resource is defined as the highest exposed (empty) square on that Resource's Population Track [p.6 — Game Concepts]. When you place a Population Cube on a Sector's Money Population Square via a Colony Ship, that cube is removed from your Money Population Track, exposing a higher square and thus increasing your potential Income [p.6 — Game Concepts]. Conversely, if that cube is later removed from the Sector — for example by removing your Influence Disc from the Sector (which forces all Population Cubes there to return to their Population Tracks) — the cube goes back onto the Money Population Track, covering up a square and lowering the highest exposed value. This directly reduces your Money Income used in the Upkeep Phase [p.14 — Influence Action] [p.24 — Upkeep Phase]. The rulebook explicitly warns about this in the context of Abandoning Sectors to solve a bankruptcy problem: "Abandoning Sectors may cause Population Cubes on Money Population Squares to return to the Money Population Track, reducing Income (and the ability of Abandoning Sectors to keep your civilization solvent)" [p.24 — Upkeep Phase]. Watch out: This isn't limited to Abandoning — any time an Influence Disc is removed from a Sector (including voluntarily during the Influence Action), the Population Cubes return to the tracks and can reduce your Income the same way [p.14 — Influence Action]. Also, you cannot voluntarily discard Population Cubes from the game board without first removing the Influence Disc from the Sector [p.30 — FAQ].

Does removing a money cube from a system reduce income?

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