The purpose of cloning is to figure out it works d'uh. Once scientists can fine tune the process it would make "cloning" new tissues, eyes, spinal cords ect. easier to do, in my eyes knowlegde does improve our way of life.
However I do think that the human population is way past the sustainable number, and cloning has not been fine tuned enough to repair the poly A tail on DNA. One hypothesis for why clones die "young" is that the poly A tail - which is halved during each mitotic division, is sort of like a timer for each sister cell, so each cell can only divide so many times before dying- is only as long as the cell that was cloned. so the clone's cell are as "old" as the parent's. Therefore cloning is too dangerous to be used so some multi-millionare can get his/her kicks, but will be important for science.
I would not like to be cloned. I think its a way to egotistical way to reproduce, and the child would only have my genes, she would not even have to look, or act in anyway like me. If you are interested in cloning, I'd recogment looking up CarbonCopy, a true kitty clone that does not look like her "mother" yet has the same genes.