Kharma SystemFollow

This may be the wrong place for this, and if it is I appologize, but this question has been burning me recently.

What exact purpose does the Kharma System serve? I understand that people can rate down spam so horribly that it doesn't come up on your filter...IF you even filter.

It seems like to me that all the "regs" are abusing it to keep "noobs" from gaining any "respectable" status. For example:
everquest.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=4&mid=1081550945194786610&num=24

Other than the goofy paperclip question, what need was there to rate them down? All they were doing was saying hi to a new board.

Why can't people like myself, or eventually Gie (if they stick around) have the right to rate? Just because some self-righteous suburbanites don't want someone gaining "Guru" or "Scholar" status? I think they are mainly afraid someone will rank them down out of spite. However, some of these people can't even be touched with their 3, or 4K+ postings. Not unless someone spent an entire day going through and hunting down every post they ever made on the Main or OoT forums, but who's that petty?

I know this may be a dead horse, and I probably ranted a bit too much, but it really is irk-some.
IS there any possible "fix" to this?

Gie's first post. When they first posted, it was 3. A couple days later, rated down to what it is now.