Yes, it makes sense that it could be perceived that way. But that would not be entirely accurate, since it will get much cheaper to emit less CO2 once there is effective regulation in place.

For example: If a really painful Carbon tax was introduced over night, the next day people's lives would look a lot different. Activities that used to be mundane would suddenly be expensive luxuries.

However, that's ignoring the fact that the economy would start to route around this tax. What are currently still niche low-carbon technologies will get a lot cheaper due to economies of scale. Photovoltaics are already a super cheap way of making electricity while the sun shines - suddenly there's going to be a huge incentive to building out storage.

(Of course, you wouldn't actually do that over night.)