I don't think you should feel bad about that at all. The amount of jobs available is not going to decrease due to you publishing papers. If you "take away a spo

I don't think you should feel bad about that at all. The amount of jobs available is not going to decrease due to you publishing papers. If you "take away a spot" for someone's paper it might mean that that person doesn't get a job, but some other academic will get it instead (and none of them will know). In fact I'd say non-academics publishing in conferences and journals can be good for academics even from an egoistic standpoint, as it can help break the popular perception of science/academia as an ivory tower of self-absorbing smartasses out of touch with reality. And better popular perception of science indirectly means more funding. So as an academic I would definitely see an increase of submissions by non-academics as good news for my interests.