[bhawks]

I understand your sentiment but renting housing comes with significant legal protection for the renter. If the renter can't make their payments it is a long process to evict (no landlord wants to evict). This is a long-term relationship between renter and landlord. It seems reasonable to allow landlords to gauge the ability of tenants to make payment. They'd be doing this anyway, at least they're going thru a neutral mostly centralized group of third parties instead of judging from their gut (although that does happen too - but it'd be more biased if you eliminate credit checks).