 Marx and Engels disagreed strongly with Lange’s position (Weikart 1999, 31; Marx and Engels 1975, 43: 158, 527–528). The view Engels expresses in a letter to Lange seems to be that taking the Malthusian view requires treating what is a historical law, in other words a contingent law that holds during a particular mode of production, as an “eternal” law. The problem of producing enough is a problem generated by the existing mode of production. The technological means available then and in the future are and would be more than enough to deal with any increases in population as long as capitalism is overcome. Theories of eternal laws are part of an ideology that supports the existing mode of production because they present what are contingent laws as necessary, thus creating the impression that the social order cannot be changed. This inhibits the interest in changing society (Lange 1968b, 80–81; Marx and Engels 1975, 42: 136).