Someone out there is willing to pay $110k for his time. Ergo, $110k is a fair price to ask for his labor.

Tell you what, let's talk about waffle irons instead of people. Say I'm throwing a giant waffle party and I need ten waffle irons. I ask around to my friends and neighbors and offer them $5 for their waffle irons, and most say, "Sure, sounds fair. Not like I actually use the thing."

But when I get to one guy's house, he says, "Well, I'd love to help you out . . . but the elementry school already offered me $10 for my waffle iron."

And I say, "$10? Don't they know they could get a waffle iron for $5? What makes yours so special?"

And he says, "I don't know. Maybe they want them clean. Maybe they want a particular brand. Maybe they don't know they can get them for $5, and maybe it's that my wife teaches there and they want to help her out. Doesn't matter. School offered me $10, but if you'll pay me $10 as well, I'll let you have it instead."

Now, you seem to be saying that $10 is an unfair price to ask for his waffle iron, and that he's greedily exploiting a competing offer to get extra money out of me. But from my perspective, the guy's waffle iron is worth $10 -- to him and to the school. They have their reasons, and their reasons don't matter. If the waffle iron isn't worth $10 to me, I should move on and find somebody with a $5 waffle iron to sell.

Things are worth what people will pay for them. I do not know an alternative sensible definition of "worth".