It really depends on what you NEED to use it for.
I think too many people get hung up on wanting the ultimate editing tools when their needs are fairly basic.
Elements combined with a couple of addins Grants Tools (free) and Elements+ (cheap) will give you back a lot of the functionality of CS5.
Unless you use it for raw processing.
True, but elements does include a cut down version of ACR and RawTherapee (free) does loads.