No more postal services in the US? What would Ben Franklin think!

Imagine a nation without the Postal Service.

No more birthday cards and bills or magazines and catalogs filling the mailbox.

It's a worst-case scenario being painted for the US postal service that has lost $8.5 billion in 2010 and seems headed deeper into the red this year.

"A lot of people would miss it," says Tony Conway, a 34-year post office veteran who now heads the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.

Businesses, too.

Image: In this photo taken on Wednesday September 7, 2011, Allison Fisher, 25, visits a post office to mail textbooks in Worthington, Ohio.

Text: Randolph E Schmid, AP

AP Images