"I aim low" (#22; Topic: D)

In 1/6/06's The Boondocks (a 3-panel carton) by Aaron McGruder, Caesar, the protagonist, makes his New Year's resolution (in panel 1), switches to soy milk by adding it to his bowl of cereal (panel 2), and then says: "I aim low" (panel 3). No, no, no, Casesar. Never aim low; always aim high. In any case, in this instance, by switching to soy milk, you are actually aiming high -- soy milk is much better, both nutritionally and environmentally. In his 2005 best-selling book, The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman repeats a similar misguided sentiment among U.S. businessmen: in competiton, China and India aim low (low-cost labor, etc.); in Friedman's view, the two countries aim high (better service, higher-quality product, etc.) In 1/16/06 issue of Business Week, Roger Martin, Dean of U of Toronto's School of Management, offers a similar wake-up call: "There is a romantic notion in North American business that its future lies in design and innovation, while India and China will be the home of less skilled, lower-paying operations churning out the products and services the U.S. comes up with."
[Correction: Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic's book, Chinese America, is published in 2005, not, as misstated in #21, in 1995.]
Posted 8:17 pm, Tuesday, January 10, 2006