How middle-class and even "wealthy" American families are sliding inexorably into the red

``Perhaps nobody is crying for lawyers making $500,000 a year or even $250,000, but the analysis shows just how easy it is for spending habits to take a high salary and turn it into table scraps. Dogen said pressure from peers to spend more is a big contributing factor, adding "everywhere I go, and I've been all over the world, high income earners are secretly feeling the same squeeze."''