What if a major country got rid of traditional currency and instead issued non-transferable vouchers that could be redeemed for food, clothing, entertainment goods, etc? Like if instead of getting paid in dollars you got a little paper with your name on it redeemable for a certain amount of a particular good?
One advantage could be massively reducing theft. Money would be pretty much useless to steal since it'd be non-transferable. It'd also make black market transactions harder since they'd have to barter instead of just paying cash.
A second advantage could be a firmer control of how people spend money. Don't want people wasting too much time on entertainment? Just limit the vouchers for entertainment goods. Drinking an issue? Cut back the alcohol vouchers.
A big disadvantage, I think would be working out how much of each voucher people needed so people could get everything they needed and not have excess vouchers left over. It'd be way less versatile then money and wouldn't give people as much choice over their spending.
Would this system work or would it be a disaster? It wouldn't be as versatile as money but I could see some sort of Communist country implementing a system like that.