This has been debated on many places in camera clubs and on the internet. Here is my view on the subject.

RAW files are not image files. They are data directly from the camera sensor. They need to be processed after the fact.

JPG files are processed using settings that have been set in the camera beforehand. They are then compressed and stored to the memory card.

I shoot all my pictures in the RAW+Largest JPG mode. Memory cards are so cheap now a days and cameras have big buffers so I see no need to pick one over the other. I really like the RAW files for their flexible ability, but sometimes I use the JPG when the settings were perfect and I'm just looking to do something fast.

If your camera has the option for RAW and you aren't using it you are throwing away a lot of data that you may need or want. With memory cards so cheap I don't see any reason not to.