The Blame Tree

How to read this: At each fork, one actor faces a choice. The red path is what they did. The blue path is what they could have done instead. Cumulative harm tracks the running total of damage along each path. This choice added shows how much this specific decision contributed. At the endpoints, compare the totals — the gap is the avoidable damage.

Harm scale: 1 death = 100 · institutional crisis = 30 · 50K workers unpaid = 25 · millions inconvenienced = 20 · political crisis = 15 · rights violation = 5 · escalation = 3 · obstruction = 1. You may disagree with these weights. That's the point.