According to Merriam-Webster, definitions of "stakeholder" include "one that has a stake in an enterprise" and "one who is involved in or affected by a course of action."

When it comes to big banking institutions like Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and Citigroup (NYSE:C), some stakeholders have always been very obvious. Investors and employees are stakeholders, as are customers. All of these groups have vested interests in the fate of the financial institution.

However, over the past couple of years, we've seen another group of stakeholders in these financial giants: Everyone else.

When JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) swept up the remains of Bear Stearns and WaMu, when Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) swooped in on Merrill Lynch, and when AIG (NYSE:AIG) went into a death spiral, we saw all too clearly how much we all had at stake in the well-being of the financial world's biggest institutions. And in the end, the government handed out our money to help keep these bumbling behemoths from going under.

So is it too much to ask that these same institutions cough up cash to repay our generosity? And would it be terrible to ask that they pay out a little extra in the future to guard against another calamity? I think not.

Of course, the government's potential plan to levy a fee on the big banks is rife with problems. One of the most obvious is that those within the banks will find ways to shift the cost to everyone but themselves. This means the fee will have the most impact on investors and customers, as opposed to the insiders who actually caused the problems.

And that's not to mention that thus far, the government has been utterly inept and toothless when it comes to addressing the banking situation. Despite the proposal expected from President Obama tomorrow, I think that Congress will ultimately wimp out, and it will never get implemented.

In the end, the biggest of the banks are still too big to fail, are still paying out bonuses so big employees would likely sell out their mothers to get them, and are still making the bulk of their profits through trading. And we're busy pulling out our hair over a fee that will never happen? As far as I'm concerned, we're not even at square one when it comes to banking reform.

Just thinking about the government's kid-glove treatment of the banks makes my blood boil. But you know what never fails to calm me down? Dividends. Boy, do I love dividends.