We've done away with the "number of votes scales with the amount of taxes you pay" quite some time ago.

Not quite. Having more votes mean you participate in more elections, your vallots are larger . You still vote for one node at a time.

I seldomly vote, and don't give a rats ass about XP. I don't care much at all about Perlmonks voting and XP system, just don't try to compare it to "real life". It doesn't compare.

Sure it does. An analogy is never 100%, but it does compare.