High Income versus Higher Income

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patran

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Dear teachers

I wrote an article about retirement investing, with the following sentence:

"Pension scheme members can earn higher return by investing in equity funds as compared to bond funds" - the editor of my company says "higher" can only be used when figures are compared in the context, and higher return is "Chinglish". As such, he changed it to "can earn high return".

However, I can find in a number of English media where "higher income", "higher growth" is used. Such as The Telegraph (below)

Five ways to retire with a higher income
Five ways to retire with a higher income - Telegraph

Would like to know if "higher income/earnings" can only be used for number comparision. And if such usage is Chinglish or not.

Regards

Anthony the learner
 
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SlickVic9000

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"Higher returns" sounds fine to me. Also, I would use "in comparison to".
 

patran

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"Higher returns" sounds fine to me. Also, I would use "in comparison to".
Thanks Vic, do you think that "higher returns" sounds like Chinglish or bad grammar? Thx.
 

Raymott

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Thanks Vic, do you think that "higher returns" sounds like Chinglish or bad grammar? Thx.
"Higher returns" is normal, as Vic has suggested.
You could write "Equities have high returns compared to bonds" or "Equities have higher returns compared to bonds." Either way it's a comparison.
If A is high compared to B, then A must be higher than B.

(Whether the statement is actually true over recent years, I'm not sure.)
 

patran

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"Higher returns" is normal, as Vic has suggested.
You could write "Equities have high returns compared to bonds" or "Equities have higher returns compared to bonds." Either way it's a comparison.
If A is high compared to B, then A must be higher than B.

(Whether the statement is actually true over recent years, I'm not sure.)
Hi Raymott, how about if I write: "A younger member of the MPF scheme usually has higher risk tolerance since they have a longer investment period in which to recover any losses from downturns. A retiring member should lean more toward bond funds than the higher risk equity funds despite the current inflation pressure."

Please advise

Anthony the learner
 

SlickVic9000

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Both "high" and "higher" are perfectly fine. Sometimes comparative adjectives are used this way, with the comparison being implicit, not spoken.

In the case of "higher risk equity funds", other, less risky equity funds are being tacitly referenced here.
 
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