It sounds a bit like a dollar auction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction to me (ish).

What he's probably trying to say though is that miners are likely operating at near break-even, so they continue to mine in the hopes of their luck improving and being able to pay their debts (ie Gambler's fallacy).

There are a bunch of reasons someone would do something illogical. Mining bitcoin is essentially gambling, and problem gamblers will continue to sit and gamble even if they're losing money. (Doubly so if they owe money to someone else).