Why Skyscrapers ?

I'd love to know what a town planner gets out of allowing a skyscraper to be build. I understand why a builder or property promoter would want to build a skyscraper - maximize the profit on the patch of land. But for the town it seems like a pure headache.

Manhattan is an island with lots of skyscrapers, in one of the biggest countries on the world and that is obsessed with cars. Each floor of each skyscraper has toilets. Imagine the environmental impact on an island! In the film "Towering Inferno", the firemen couldn't reach the upper floors. This sounds like a real problem to me - firemen need special equipment, again a problem for the town planner. Skyscrapers tend the have lots of people entering and leaving - how do they get there? Another problem for the town planner, not for the promoter.

Towns need taxes, and big businesses bring big taxes. However the big view would seem to say that the taxes are going to be spent somewhere. Is there really no better way to provide buildings for these activities?

Paris has a business district with lots of tall buildings, but just one tall building inside the walls. No-one in Paris knows how the building, called the Tour Montparnasse, got permission to be built. TV in Paris is transmitted from the Tour Eiffel. I had a friend living behind the Tour Montparnasse (as seen from the Tour Eiffel) and they basically couldn't watch TV. This was in 1997, so hopefully its improved today.

So when I see a skyscraper I interpret it as corruption. Chicago was one of the pioneers of skyscrapers, and is also one of the most corrupt cities in the US. Any connection?