There are so many scripting languages out there, and they each have their good and bad points, well not really bad, its just that they may be limited based on need. However, this thread seeks to ask the question...
Which scripting language is best for general purposes or in other words, which scripting language allows you to do more for your buck?
The only way to answer this is to know why you want to program. Each language has it's strengths and weaknesses, But i am gonna have to choose Perl, because is a nice language, but mainly used for web and CGI (Common Gateway Interface), and unix programming. The nice thing about perl is that there is such a nice developers community. You could find nearly and modules you ever need just by looking on the internet for 30 seconds in CPAN.org. The drawback is that it's more of a scripting langauge, and used on unix more than Windows. The other drawback is that perl code can get extremely cryptic. Because their are so many ways to do the exact same thing. But so long as you use good programming practice this should not happen. This is not to say you shouldn't learn it, if you are into unix or Linux systems, perl would be a great language for you to learn and make money. Or if you are into web design and CGI programming.