You can't solve the problem in conventional ways because rich people as well as large funds and corporations control legislation. You can vote 100 tines and be guaranteed that the outcome won't be different in that perspective.
I'm not sure if ycombinators like the alternative way.
BTW I agree to your idea in general, just want to say that I'd substitute WORK with anything that benefits human being.
The underlying problem is that money buys policy. That's not how democracy is supposed to work.
But as long as that's true, you're going to get increasing disparities of both wealth and power - because you have a nice tight political and economic engine that cycles by turning one into the other, and back again.
Redefining value as "social value" - of some kind - won't change this on its own, because that process is just the on-ramp to the main cycle.
And unfortunately it's not the only on-ramp - it's just the most obvious one.
As long as the state, or whoever manage and control the state machine, utilize "money" to purchase man power (to get whatever tasks they need to accomplish or whatever goods they need to build), it's impossible to bar money from the system. It is part of the system.
Democracy has always been like this, or worse, when it is not judged by money, but by your ancestors. Capitalism smashes Feudalism by bringing power to a lot of people than the Feudal lords agreed with, and then it's pretty much "money buys everything" mode.
I'm not sure if ycombinators like the alternative way.
BTW I agree to your idea in general, just want to say that I'd substitute WORK with anything that benefits human being.