"...About 4 years latter, and after about 5,000 miles, the gears in the hub wore out and it was reduced to scrap. "
There's a difference between "cheap" and "frugal". My parents bought Schwinn because they knew the bikes wouldn't fall apart. Mine actually came from a neighbor, bought second hand. Frugal and cheap my parents were.
I had an Orange Krate, then a Varsity during the 10-speed craze. I beat the crap out of both of those bikes and never had any problems. It is too bad that there are cheap knockoff bikes that say "Schwinn" on them, but even the young hipster types pay good money for the real deal Chicago Schwinns. They're too young to be on a nostalgia trip so it must be the legendary ruggedness of those battlewagons.