I'm open to alternative ideas and like your idea directionally even though it doesn't really work entirely.
I don't really like the idea of a rich person silencing some people and rewarding passive users of the site.
Passive users aren't rewarded really - they had to at least contribute some value at one time. I'm going back to work on the trust algorithm soon and this will be one reason why - I think I definitely over-reward people who weren't super active recently.