Coming from Billund (where LEGO is made and invented) ... having friends and parents who worked +25 years at LEGO. My dad having worked both with construction and design of the plastic molds for all those years. I can say that the only reason LEGO is more expensive, is because its a high quality product made in Europe (mostly Denmark) and not in China.
I just wanted to point out that while this was true in the past, a number of the lower volume Lego parts (minifigs, animals, etc) are actually now manufactured in China.
