Keep politics out of the GEAR discussion forum. If you must bring up politics, do it in the OPEN discussion forum.

Back to the subject. Jolly got it right. The more expensive guitars from the same company use higher quality/better hardware, woods (good wood in not cheap!), better attention to detail, craftsmanship, and quality controll (can't speak for gibson on that one though).

As far as PRS goes, take your SE, Standard, CE, Custom, and Private Stock. The SE's are made in Korea with cheaper parts. The standards have the same hardware as the higher end guitars, just without the pretty woods used. The Customs/McCarty's use the same hardware as the standards, but they have higher quality woods. All of those use CNC to cut and shape the bodies and necks. They are fine sanded by hand. Paint preped by hand, and painted by hand. All the electronics and hardware are installed by hand, after each guitar is ready, it is personally set up by a guitar tech, and must meet a very high standard of quality. I've seen guitars that looked perfect to me, but there might have been a little ding in it, so it was cut completely in two on a ban saw. Now comes the Private Stock. These guitars are custom ordered by the individual buyer. Specific woods are hand picked. the body's, necks and everything is all done by hand, even the top contour carve. Those guitars are built for the customer to their specs. That's why they cost more than the rest.

BTW, most prices of PRS's I've seen people post have been list prices, and not the actual sale prices. Mine "listed" around $2600, but I paid $1800 brand new. Now, if it had a 10-top, bird inlays, clear or stained finish on the back, and the artist package (whatever that is, haven't figured out yet) then it would have been closer to the $2600.