Work is exploitive only when you're not compensated adequately for it, or if you cannot leave that job voluntarily. And I assume that by "people who don't work for someone else," you are referring to people who still work rather than, say, landowners who collect rents whose main work is to go to the bank to make a deposit.

People can be both ends and means and be quite content. Personally, I think there is too much emphasis on people being ends unto themselves in the current culture. Madonna is a great example of this. She ceased to be entertaining more than 30 years ago, yet I still come across news snippets about her. Why?