Immanuel Kant: The Duties of the Categorical Imperative
Objections to the Second Version of the Categorical Imperative
The principal objection to this aspect of Kant's theory is that, like the previous, it sounds good in the abstract, but when you think about how it would actually work, things become difficult. Almost all businesses require treating people as means and not as ends. In the grocery store, the cashier isn't waiting there to receive your respectful attention. She's there to run your items through the scanner and that's it. The same goes for the guy in the produce section setting up the banana display. Really, just paying someone to do a job – no matter what the job might be – is treating them as a means to an end, as little more than a way to get the work done.
If that's right, then you're not going too far by wondering whether the entire modern world of jobs and money would unravel if we all suddenly became Kantians. Paying a janitor to clean up after hours, a paralegal to proofread a lawyer's briefs, a day-care worker to keep peace among children at recess, all these treatments of others seem to fail Kant's test.
Defenders of Kant understand all this perfectly and can respond. One argument is that providing someone with a job is not treating them as a means to your ends; instead, by allowing them the opportunity to earn a living, you're actually supporting their projects and happiness. Seen this way, hiring people is not denigrating them, it's enabling. And far from being immoral in the Kantian sense, it's ethically recommendable.