He has the agents reversed. At general equilibrium (assuming open markets), a corporation's "reservation price" will be equal to the employee's "marginal produ

He has the agents reversed. At general equilibrium (assuming open markets), a corporation's "reservation price" will be equal to the employee's "marginal product", so we don't generally use the term "reservation price" in the employer's perspective. OTOH, an employee will have a "reservation price" that is the minimum they'd accept to force themselves to wake up at 8am everyday and go to work. If you are the last COBOL programmer on earth, then surely many companies formerly using COBOL have switched to other languages and platforms and, most likely, there is a cross-compiler to COBOL from Python or C or something. Thus, a COBOL programmer's marginal product to any corporation would not really be that high since the company could switch to another language instead of hiring you (especially since they will have to switch eventually (assuming you, the last COBOL programmer on earth, are mortal).