[pmorici]

Right, and that is probably a negligible cost as you can get first aid training for free in a lot of places. The point is the op is advocating that businesses be required to buy expensive equipment that they themselves probably wouldn't be willing to spend the money on.

[Xylakant]

I need to pay that persons training, the wage for the lost day of work once a year. The training cost itself is negligible, but a day not billed to a customer costs me ~ 800 USD. I can nearly pay an AED for that.

However, given that a colleague nearly died from a stroke (he completely recovered) and another colleague permanently failed to show up for work after a bike crash, I think that having more people solidly trained in emergency procedures can't be a bad thing. And a one-time investment for medical equipment mandated for companies from a certain size on might be a good thing to consider.

[Xylakant]

Actually if you read the OPs statement twice, you'll realize that he just voices his surprise that no AED was on site and does not advocate anything.

[subsystem]

In a normal office you wouldn't need more than one AED per 50+ employees. That's an insignificant cost.