[TheCowboy]

It's a good but difficult question to answer if one wants to break into the details of it.

The process of manufacturing all of the components likely results externalities that are represented in the price. There is also the cost of how the disposed machine is processed.

You can also factor in the user behaviors. My grandmother probably is not going to leave her desktop powered on for longer than the 1 hour or so per day that she might use it. People here, myself included, are probably used to running their machines 24-7.

There's also the perspective that if this machine is going to a 10 year old kid, that it's a machine s/he can break and it won't be a big deal. This can be a significant advantage for a low income home.