TT31415

So, obviously there is money at stake, and possibly life. I liked the posting from the fireman very early on. I guess he should know.
I work in pharmaceuticals and healthcare ecoomics. We have the same issue a lot: Is treating a large population with a particular drug cost effective?
Take a hypothetical situation: Every 1,000 installations of a sprinkler system can save one life. At a price of, say $3,000 per sprinkler system, this would mean that each saved life costs $3,000,000. That is a lot of money.
Now, I am NOT saying that saving a life shouldn't be worth $3,000,000. The real question is: Is there some other way to save more than one life with the same amount of money. It would appear to me that, e.g., an additional fire escape route could be a cheaper way to save more lives. Granted, though, I am not a builder, and don't understand the costs as well. I only wanted to suggest a way on how to discuss the cost issue.